tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86082000332035398732024-03-22T03:59:53.196-07:00Toomas KarmoToomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.comBlogger199125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-83059508161332697482022-09-08T11:08:00.010-07:002022-09-18T11:51:20.793-07:00Toomas Karmo: En remerciement: Elizabeth II, du Royaume-Uni (1926-)1952-2022 <p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsEmnNvOb0DIKSdwqCfTbrqk5DQtnLKfSr_JmILv7CwGbUANjBRyg-3Pt4XKbbd5hoHpPhvGulGsP4Ed7-6fCoYt7hyLtHA35HHqDMkeLOpheMKCnUEqo2t5PqmBRmypv48-vzlr6ZxRvq3bTyahJ42y4Y6QrxGcPCx6jsFWEo7jOtNeH4BbixgNjx/s4160/IMG_20220908_204112.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3120" data-original-width="4160" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsEmnNvOb0DIKSdwqCfTbrqk5DQtnLKfSr_JmILv7CwGbUANjBRyg-3Pt4XKbbd5hoHpPhvGulGsP4Ed7-6fCoYt7hyLtHA35HHqDMkeLOpheMKCnUEqo2t5PqmBRmypv48-vzlr6ZxRvq3bTyahJ42y4Y6QrxGcPCx6jsFWEo7jOtNeH4BbixgNjx/s320/IMG_20220908_204112.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Foto tehtud minu töötoas Tõraveres, Tartumaal, BBC reaalaja ülekandest Maailmakella (Temps universel coordoné) järgi 20220908T174112Z. / Photo taken in my workroom in Tõravere, south-central Estonia, from BBC live feed at UTC=20220908T174112Z. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRFbIxAuFBWWxS8tCNpWX7Q0z1pkINhO_orRwL0NuzvrI-JwKEslOalXIvRobvkkhF9X7p1V7mKJkWexqNuIBZcej08hQiZN0_jfMczgqhLUOfEazasPfOM9jWXZHdBGPF-217DlDigY3trFk3_AyUbOq8o0aKiyfIPYmRxqvnA9FeOu1IFEiNyF7b/s4160/IMG_20220918_171201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4160" data-original-width="3120" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRFbIxAuFBWWxS8tCNpWX7Q0z1pkINhO_orRwL0NuzvrI-JwKEslOalXIvRobvkkhF9X7p1V7mKJkWexqNuIBZcej08hQiZN0_jfMczgqhLUOfEazasPfOM9jWXZHdBGPF-217DlDigY3trFk3_AyUbOq8o0aKiyfIPYmRxqvnA9FeOu1IFEiNyF7b/s320/IMG_20220918_171201.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">See sama vikerkaar, mida avalikkus imetles Londonis surmauudise saabumise minutite ajal, on ka äratanud "Postimehe" joonistaja tähelepanu. / The same rainbow at which a surprised London public gazed during the minutes in which the death announcement was made has also aroused the notice of the "Postimehe" sketch-artist. [Note added: "Postimees" is the principal Estonian newspaper, serving since 1857 as our national newspaper-of-record. The 2022-09-09 lead article writer has used the headline "Ajastu lõpp", or "End of an Epoch". The pull-quote "Ajal, mil pärast Bexiti referendumit 2016. aastal on Ühendkuningriigil olnud neli peaministrit, oli kuninganna oma riigi alamatele justkui ankruks, millest kinni hoida. Nüüd on see ankur kadunud" might be translated as follows: "In a period during which, in the wake of the 2016 Brexit referendum, the United Kingdom had four prime ministers, the Queen was for subjects in her country an anchor on which to seize hold. Now that anchor is gone."] </span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">"Kui saabub rahu, mäletagem, et jääb meile, praeguse päeva lastele, teha homsest maailmast parema ja rõõmsama paiga." / “When </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">peace comes, remember it will be for us, the children of today, to make the world of tomorrow a better and happier place.” - Elizabeth II </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b>==POSTITUSE LÕPP / END OF BLOGSPOT POSTING==</b></span></span></p>Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-24079339275558402652022-09-01T08:47:00.006-07:002022-09-01T08:55:49.673-07:00Toomas Karmo: souvenir reconnaissant de Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev / Михаил Сергеевич Горбачёв (1931-2022) <p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxaWeFpWLoj0Um_823na8ZwyMERLnMfVW8buUhVI0zaRIxG9aJ5g9NxRUJUAKfN0TSjCS80dTXwkBVA76xRJXZnWn_5Am-bdWbdKI5lfo4Ljj3yzHdVWy4v6Gn13-pT8uS1ZSH6eN4Bb_f9W03b3JqNHxFDCJf9dRpF-mB9iQUjPU-QbmFRKuIaASM/s1300/berliin1989.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="873" data-original-width="1300" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxaWeFpWLoj0Um_823na8ZwyMERLnMfVW8buUhVI0zaRIxG9aJ5g9NxRUJUAKfN0TSjCS80dTXwkBVA76xRJXZnWn_5Am-bdWbdKI5lfo4Ljj3yzHdVWy4v6Gn13-pT8uS1ZSH6eN4Bb_f9W03b3JqNHxFDCJf9dRpF-mB9iQUjPU-QbmFRKuIaASM/s320/berliin1989.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Brandenburger Tor, Berlin, at site of the wall which until 1989 November 09 separated the Soviet sphere of influence from the West. M.S. Gorbachev's decision not to intervene in the German internal 1989 political process secured a peaceful resolution to a crisis which could have destroyed the member states both of the Warsaw Pact and of NATO. Photo published at <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/berlin-wall-fall-photos/kellie-kreiss">https://www.ranker.com/list/berlin-wall-fall-photos/kellie-kreiss</a>, with attribution "Owen Franken/Corbis via Getty Images". </span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>"XXI век станет либо веком тотального обострения смертоносного кризиса, либо же веком морального очищения и духовного выздоровления человечества. Его всестороннего возрождения. Убежден, все мы – все разумные политические силы, все духовные и идейные течения, все конфессии – призваны содействовать этому переходу, победе человечности и справедливости. Тому, чтобы XXI век стал веком возрождения, веком Человека." - M.S. Gorbachev, cité à <a href="https://www.gorby.ru/">https://www.gorby.ru/</a>. ["XXI sajand saab olema kas surmava kriisi täieliku laienemise sajand või moraalse puhastuse ning inimkonna vaimuliku toibumise sajand, tema täieliku taaselustumise sajand. Olen veendunud, et me kõik - kõik mõistlikud poliitilised jõud, kõik vaimulikud ja mõttelised voolud, kõik ülestunnistused - oleme kutsutud kaasa aitame selles üleminekus, inimlikkuse ja õigluse võiduks. Et XXI sajandist saaks uuestisünni sajand, Inimese Sajand."] ["The 21st century is destined to be either the century in which a death-dealing crisis expands to overwhelming proportions or the century of a moral purification and a revival of human spirituality. Of a full return to life. I am convinced that all of us - all rational political forces, all spiritual and philosophical movements, all faith confessions - are called to assist in this transition, for the victory of humanity and justice. So that the 21st century may become a Century of Rebirth, a Century of the Human Person."]</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>==конец публикации / POSTITUSE LÕPP / END OF POSTING==</b></p>Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-30886738107230604712022-08-21T10:56:00.024-07:002022-08-23T03:06:23.139-07:00Toomas Karmo: K.Cilevitz, although now a convicted criminal, runs again for public office: how to right this wrong? <p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"><b style="font-size: xx-small; text-align: left;"><u>Quality assessment: </u></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 4/5. Justification: I had enough time and background knowledge to treat my subject adequately.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><u>Revision history:</u></b></span><b style="font-size: xx-small;"> </b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>UTC=20220823T094400Z/version 3.1.0: Kmo did some fine-tuning, and also added some remarks on the advisability of Campaign Cilevitz staffers contacting him (whether to inform, to encourage, or to admonish) by e-mail or telephone. </b></span><b style="background-color: transparent; font-size: x-small;">- Kmo reserved the right to continue producing, in a way not documented here, minor tweaks, over the coming 96 hours, as versions 3.1.1, 3.1.2, ... . </b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>UTC=20220823T085300Z/version 3.0.0: Kmo added several concluding paragraphs, urging Karen's door-to-door canvassers to answer voter questions fully, and to be alert to the possibility of Facebook view-blocking. </b></span><b style="font-size: x-small;">- Kmo reserved the right to continue producing, in a way not documented here, minor tweaks, over the coming 96 hours, as versions 3.0.1, 3.0.2, ... . </b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>UTC=20220823T052200Z/version 2.0.0: Taking advice from a member of the Catholic laity, Kmo removed lyrics for his two-stanza comic song ("Underneath the lamplight/ Pretty near the domes", to the tune of "Lily Marlene") which recapitulated first the 2007-through-2018 DDO conservation failure, then Karen's 2020-through-2022 fraud case. Kmo and his advisor reasoned that publication of his song would lead Karen in a pastorally inappropriate direction, contrary to the reflective interiority from which compassion for others, and a concomitant publicly articulated change of heart, will eventually emerge. - Kmo reserved the right to continue producing, in a way not documented here, minor tweaks, over the coming 96 hours, as versions 2.0.1, 2.0.2, ... . </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>UTC=20220821T175500Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo uploaded base version. He then planned to continue producing, in a way not documented here, minor tweaks, over the coming 96 hours, as versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, ... . . </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"> </p><h1 style="text-align: left;">1. Philosophical background: why this casework matters to observers across the spectrum of democratic countries</h1><p>Upon leaving my native Canada on 2018 October 29 to take up permanent residence in my ancestral Estonia as an Estonian citizen, I thought I had largely finished with Canadian public work. Now, however, that optimistic 2018 assessment looks premature. On 2022 August 19, a troubling matter from my Canadian past arose unexpectedly, in the person of Richmond Hill (Ontario) city councillor - and additionally, since July (as I explain below) convicted criminal - Karen Cilevitz. Once again I am obliged to discuss Cilevitz casework on this blog, now as a kind of object lesson for students of civics, both overseas in North America and here in the European Union. </p><p>As the ordinary middle class is foundational to any democracy, so also is its ordinary - its normally humdrum - municipal politics. We cannot have a functioning democracy, whether in Estonia or in Canada or elsewhere, if our municipal life is compromised. As of 2022 August 19, the municipal life of Richmond Hill, in the Canadian province of Ontario, has come under threat. So bad is the suddenly emerging problem that I am obliged to discuss the Cilevitz file on this blog, as an object lesson for friends of democracy everywhere. </p><h1 style="text-align: left;">2. Legal and political background </h1><h3 style="text-align: left;">2.1 Karen's 2022 July criminal conviction </h3><p>Richmond Hill City 2014-through-2022 Councillor Karen Cilevitz, a David Dunlap Observatory (DDO) heritage-conservation activist from 2007 to 2011, but subsequently a proponent of a 14-street, roughly 530-home, subdivision which destroyed 32 hectares of the 76.5-hectare David Dunlap Observatory greenspace, was arrested on 2020 December 15 on a matter unconnected with DDO conservation. Karen was charged with fraud over 5000 CAD and breach of public trust, in casework reported in the local, regional, and metropolitan press, and reported nationally at <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/richmond-hill-councillor-charged-1.5842277">https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/richmond-hill-councillor-charged-1.5842277</a>. <span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The charges <span style="font-family: inherit;">stemmed from payments allegedly totalling 21,384.68 CAD, allegedly taken from the 37,000 CAD municipal compensation of her sometime municipal assistant Ms P. Burton-Garcia and conveyed to her present spouse, Mr D. Christie. </span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Karen's court appearances in connection with </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">the arrest were put into the Ontario Court of Justice (Newmarket) docket for 2021 April 01, 2021 August 05, 2021 September 16, 2021 October 07, 2021 November 04, 2021 December 01, 2022 January 20, 2022 March 17, 2022 May 10, and 2022 July 11, as case 4911998210139202. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">O</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">n her 2022 July 11 court day, Karen pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of fraud under 5000 CAD, with the Crown's original charges withdrawn. On or around 2022 July 12, as reported in various media outlets (for instance, at </span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.canadianfraudnews.com/richmond-hill-councillor-karen-cilevitz-guilty-to-fraud-under-5000-and-sentenced-to-house-arrest-and-restitution/">https://www.canadianfraudnews.com/richmond-hill-councillor-karen-cilevitz-guilty-to-fraud-under-5000-and-sentenced-to-house-arrest-and-restitution/</a>) </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">Karen received a conditional three-month sentence, requiring her to stay at home between the hours of 22:00 and 06:00 except in case of emergency. </span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">2.2 Karen's declaration of candidacy in 2022 October municipal elections</h3><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I, and I would imagine most other students of Richmond Hill civics, imagined in July that this was the end of the sordid matter. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">I reasoned that although Karen might or might not finish the remaining five months of her term as a City Councillor, she would in any case not be so impaired in her ethical judgement as to run for office during the upcoming municipal election of 2022 October. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The month immediately following her guilty plea passed placidly enough. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">I did note, to my surprise, that an anonymous flier was being distributed in Karen's ward, calling for her resignation, and I reacted with private revulsion (as many surely did) to the anonymity of the flier. F</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">urther, I did note the publication of a well reasoned letter-to-editor at </span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.yorkregion.com/opinion-story/10687542-we-elect-lawmakers-not-lawbreakers-richmond-hill-reader/">https://www.yorkregion.com/opinion-story/10687542-we-elect-lawmakers-not-lawbreakers-richmond-hill-reader/</a>, calling for Karen's resignation, as the distasteful flier already had, but published in an ethically correct way with an explicit attribution of authorship. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #202124; font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Over that month, I kept checking the City of Richmond Hill elections Web material, to make sure that Karen was now doing the reasonable thing, by refraining from candidacy. F</span></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">ortunately, there proved to be by mid-August no shortage of candidates running in Ward Five. </span></p><p><span style="color: #202124; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All will imagine, then, my shock, in performing a supposedly routine almost-final check on 2022 August 20, to find that on 2022 August 19 (the last possible date) Karen had declared herself a candidate. </span></span></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. Legal admissibility of criminal candidacy upheld: not some "Nanny State", but the local citizens, must act </span></h2><p><span style="color: #202124; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some, especially in jurisdictions outside Canada, will now ask: how is such a thing even possible? how can a freshly convicted criminal, still serving her three-month sentence, run for municipal office? S</span></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">uch a thing seems, so far as my hasty and limited researches go, to be not possible in the UK. I</span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">t is, on the other hand, possible in the USA, and again it is possible in Canada. I</span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">ndeed I would suggest that on this point the civic philosophies of the USA and Canada are superior to the civic philosophy of the UK. </span></p><p><span style="color: #202124; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the spirit of what Catholic analysts-of-governance call "subsidiarity", we must have all decisions taken at the lowest possible level. In</span></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Church terms, if a thing can be settled at the level of the diocese, rather than at the level of the Vatican, then it should be so settled; if it can be settled at the level of a parish, rather than at the level of the diocese, then similarly it is the parish that must decide. T</span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">ranslating this good idea (arguably, not always implemented in Catholic ecclesial governance, but nevertheless widely endorsed in Catholic analysis), we have the following: <i>If a secular civic thing can be settled by individual voters in an individual municipal precinct, then it should be so settled, without "Nanny State" intervention from law-makers at some higher level of government.</i> S</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">o yes, by all means: let our central governments impose no bar to the candidacy of recently convicted criminals. L</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">et the question be settled at the grassroots level, in the rough and free court of local public opinion. A</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">lthough sometimes things will go wrong, such is the price of our freedom from the potentially dangerous, because potentially enervating, Nanny. </span></p><h1 style="text-align: left;">4. Strategies for healing</h1><h3 style="text-align: left;">4.1 A brusque strategy: defeat Karen electorally, through opposing her on the hustings </h3><p>Karen surely consulted privately with others before taking her disastrous decision, so injurious to the provincial, national, and even international reputation of Richmond Hill, and so liable to bolster and reinforce voter cynicism. But something in those private consultations failed. How, now, to work for healing? </p><p>A brusque and savage healing will come if Karen first conducts a 2022 campaign on the hustings as in 2010 (when she lost), in 2014 (when she won), and in 2018 (when she won), and then gets fair-and-square defeated at the 2022 polls. </p><p>If it comes to campaigning on the hustings, then I would urge Karen's opponents to note that Karen is liable, in a repeat of her 2014 and 2018 campaign-literature inaccuracies, to try portraying herself as a DDO conservationist. This is a point on which she must be corrected in the spirit of lawyer-detective Perry Mason, who is remembered for saying in court, "Just the facts, Ma'am, just the facts. "</p><p>A legally robust factual record can be had from my pair of sites <a href="https://karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/">https://karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/</a> and <a href="http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/">http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/</a>. Both are retrievable from Google through the search phrase "karen vs toomas blog". I produced that pair of Web sites a little before Karen's initial election to Council, in 2014. My 2014 purpose was to warn 2014 voters that here was a political opportunist, more concretely a fake conservationist, who had worked in a duly ethical way in concert with other community groups for conservation of the full 76.5-hectare DDO greenspace up to and a little beyond her unsuccessful 2010 election campaign, but in the difficult emotional wake of her 2010 defeat had begun working for a commercial interest, the "Corsica" directed by members of the DeGasperis and Muzzo property-development families as a subsidiary of what was then known as "Metrus" (and has in more recent years assumed the name "DG Group"). </p><p>The physical fruits of this unethical enterprise, for which Karen served as an unpaid political cheerleader, are advertised at <a href="https://myobservatoryhill.ca/">https://myobservatoryhill.ca/</a>. Have a look, folks, and marvel (be you in Canada, in Estonia, in Russia, in the USA, in the UK, or wherever): it's the advertising copy that starts with the words "Welcome to Observatory Hill, a luxurious master-planned community in South Richmond Hill's last remaining piece of picturesque land. It's a place that's to be built on the astronomical past of the David Dunlap Observatory /.../" Here, with those McMansions on the new "Night Sky Court" so close to the DDO telescopes (I would presume destined to be a guarded, gated, enclave in the desperate, class-ridden, dog-eat-dog, decaying society of 2090), and with those Lancashire-style rowhouses a little further away (in 2090, I imagine these will look like George Orwell's 1930s "Road to Wigan Pier"), on streets with such offensive names as "Milky Way Drive" (specially offensive because visibility of the Milky Way is an early casualty of light pollution) is the sprawling roughly 530-home DeGasperis-Muzzo creation, approved at the Ontario Municipal Board by Karen's team among others, with the organization under her direction even venturing so far as to argue against conservationists in Board proceedings.</p><p>A caveat: when I here write of Karen's anti-DDO "work", I do not mean "work for pay", but "work" in the sense in which an unpaid person can "work for good table manners", or can "work for harmony in the family", or can "work for higher standards in public life". </p><p>And when I here write "legally robust", I mean "presumptively immune from challenge by Karen's lawyer, because accepted by her lawyer and my lawyer in the protracted out-of-court negotiations of 2014 as my best effort at laying out all the facts in our case, to a length of tens of thousands of words, with all the appropriate e-mail quotations, all the appropriate Web screenshots, with all the detail I could muster". </p><p>At a handful of places in this legally robust documentation, Karen's political opponents, whom I am today seeking to help, will find some material typeset not in black but in red. The occasional red words mark places in which I had to change what I initially published about Karen in 2014, when she put her Web domain <span style="font-family: courier;">karencilevitz.ca</span> up for public auction (she had not troubled to renew her expiring domain), and I bid successfully for it at public auction under Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) rules. In that initial publication, I used my just-acquired domain <span style="font-family: courier;">karencilevitz.ca</span> to document Karen's DDO work, but under the terms of our eventual out-of-court settlement transferring my writing from that domain to <a href="https://karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/">https://karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/</a>. Karen, understandably vexed when in 2011 I told her in a café chat what I had done, over-reacted by threatening legal action both against me and against CIRA. Karen, CIRA, and I settled out of court, in a 2014 negotiating process which saw me changing my text at a handful of places. I elected to mark my changes in red, and I generated a change log (enabling readers to compare my changes with my original wording) at <a href="http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/GNOA____20140505__settlement_schedule_a.pdf">http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/GNOA____20140505__settlement_schedule_a.pdf</a>. </p><p><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: #202124; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">S</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #202124; white-space: pre-wrap;">o, I say to Karen's opponents (my philosophical allies) on the hustings, as they work in the spirit of Perry Mason to uncover the squalid truth about Karen's DDO work: do not be puzzled about the red; just be ready for its occasional appearance, standing poised for an occasional consultation of </span><a href="http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/GNOA____20140505__settlement_schedule_a.pdf">http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/GNOA____20140505__settlement_schedule_a.pdf</a>. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Be</span>fore quite finishing the matter of to <a href="https://karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/">https://karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca</a> and <a href="http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/">http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/</a> , I remark for the benefit of Karen's lawyer that just as I take care not to communicate any contents of the Minutes of Settlement orally, as at an auditorium or studio microphone (a requirement in our out-of--court settlement, at <a href="http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/GNNN____20140505__settlement_body.pdf">http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/GNNN____20140505__settlement_body.pdf</a>), so also I take care not to comment, whether orally or in writing, on our terms of settlement (again, a requirement in our out-of-court settlement). It will be found on analysis of this present <span style="font-family: courier;">blogspot </span>posting that I make no comment on our terms, confining myself merely to reporting the fact of a settlement and reporting in writing on some of the contents. Whether the terms are fair or unfair, whether I have triumphantly upheld Canadian freedom of expression or cravenly surrendered (or something in between) - on these points, which would indeed constitute a commentary on the terms, I am here mute. The sole commentary permitted to me is in the document available at <a href="http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/GNOC____20140505__settlement_schedule_c.pdf">http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/GNOC____20140505__settlement_schedule_c.pdf</a>. The sole commentary permitted to Karen is in the document available as <a href="http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/GNOD____20140505__settlement_schedule_d.pdf">http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/GNOD____20140505__settlement_schedule_d.pdf</a>. I have not commented on the terms, and neither to my knowledge has Karen. In reporting on the fact of a settlement, I am here doing what Karen herself did also, in her online essay of 2014 August 02, as reproduced in an "Appendix" to <a href="https://karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/20141216T162316Z____blogpost/NNNN____20141216T162316Z____blogpost__main.html">https://karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/20141216T162316Z____blogpost/NNNN____20141216T162316Z____blogpost__main.html</a>. </p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">4.2 The optimal strategy: give initiative to Karen's campaign team </h3><p>The brusque and savage strategy may, in the end, prove the sole viable avenue for Canadian friends of democracy. </p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">But mindful of the hope clause in Saint Paul's 1 Cor 13:7 account of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;">ἀγάπη</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> ("It endures everything, believes everything, hopes everything /.../," we must for the time being stay attuned to happier possibilities. So I herewith reiterate all my various appeals to Karen for reconciliation since 2014, including not only the ageing <a href="https://karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/">https://karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/</a>, but also the more up-to-date <a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com</a>/. Can Karen's lawyer, in particular, now write to my Estonian lawyer, Mr Andrus Lillo of Lillo&Lõhmus, Tartu (<a href="http://www.advokaadid.ee/index.php?lang=eng">http://www.advokaadid.ee/index.php?lang=eng</a>), as </span><span style="font-family: courier;">andrus@advokaadid.ee</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">, asking for a lifting of the personal-communications ban imposed by our 2014 out-of-court settlement? </span> </p><p>If it is too hard for Karen to direct her lawyer to reach out to Mr Andrus Lillo here in Estonia, then Karen can work for healing by indicating sorrow for her misjudgement in running for 2022 public office, in this action respectfully asking Ward Five voters to ignore the presence of her name on the ballot paper, and perhaps also indicating which of the other candidates she now endorses. </p><p>If, in turn, this line of community restitution proves too hard for Karen, then she can work for healing in the manner I have urged on some non-heroic Russians in the current Ukraine disaster: do not attempt what is beyond your unaided spiritual and emotional strength; continue doing what your position calls on you to do, but do not do it very well. In Ukraine, that means (to take two hypothetical examples) "accidentally" spilling lots of precious fuel in resupplying one's Red Army tank column, or arriving at 13.58 for the Syrian mercenaries-with-Red Army <i>rendez-vous</i> which was scheduled for 13.21. In Richmond Hill, that simply means not campaigning very hard. Karen has to be home by 22.00 under the terms of her three-month criminal sentence. Very well, then: let her be ever so prudent in this matter, taking care in what the Canadian police are pleased to call "an abundance of caution" to be home from her hustings by 21:00, even by 20:30. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Parallel points apply to such people as are still willing to serve as assistants in a Cilevitz campaign. If you have the strength, then dissociate yourself from the campaign after your first few days of service, defecting eloquently and visibly, rather as Geneva diplomat Boris Bondarev did when protesting the 2022 Ukraine operation (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Bondarev">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Bondarev</a>). If you additionally want to write a visible declaration of principle, you are welcome to do so here at <span style="font-family: courier;">toomaskarmo.blogspot.com</span>, by way of a comment-on-blog-posting, or even by way of a freestanding guest essay (in <span style="font-family: inherit;">both cases first e-mailing your material to </span><span style="font-family: courier;">toomas.karmo@gmail.com</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">, <span style="font-family: inherit;">and in both cases following the "T</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;">ripartite Identity Requirement" and the "Courtesy Requirement" which I laid out on 2016 April 14 for would-be commentators and would-be essayists at </span><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/search/label/AAAA--blog_intro">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/search/label/AAAA--blog_intro</a>). </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #444444;">If, on the other hand, you lack the spiritual and emotional strength for this grueling kind of community service, then simply do your work less with regard to political expediency than with regard to political integrity. You may wish to cut back on the number of hours you donate to door-to-door canvassing, for a candidate in whom you now lack full confidence. Or still better, you may choose to do the very thing which Karen, during my 2010 door-to-door canvassing on her behalf, at that point arguably lacked the strength to do. In 2010, I found that she tried to make the door-to-door encounter brief, a matter of less than sixty seconds, ending once the resident verbally assured her of a supporting vote. In contrast with this, I say: be a strong public-spirited citizen, and likewise encourage Karen to be a strong public-spirited citizen. Anxiety and confusion will run high in Ward Five. Your mission in 2022 is to do what in my experience Karen was not inclined to do when I accompanied her on the hustings in 2010, namely to linger on each doorstep. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">In ensuring that questions get answered in adequate detail, you will want to refer voters to Karen's Facebook pages - both the one which in the second half of August had a little over 1000 followers and the more personal one which around that same time had a little under 100 followers. In your conversation, direct attention to Karen's newspaper-published explanation that she was driven by financial pressure to commit her fraud, and additionally to her Facebook explanation that she spent several hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawyers as she sought to defend herself. If your interlocutor asks how she can have been in financial desperation when docked for over 300 days' salary as a punishment from the City of Richmond Hill for her pre-fraud actions, and yet also can have had hundreds of thousands of dollars after the fraud was perpetrated, recommend to them that they phone her team on 416-806-7582, making an appointment to chat with her personally. Also, prepare for this robust line of questioning by checking in with Karen yourself, learning from her how she herself resolves the seeming discrepancy, and doing your best to guide her now in the direction of financial transparency. You can point out to Karen that she herself may in due course find the courage and strength to write on Facebook a more careful account of how her lawyers were financed. (For my part, I know nothing, and I am baffled. We know that the authorities pegged the total fraud, in the charges as initially brought, not in the hundreds of thousands, let alone in the millions, but merely at the above-cited figure of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">21,384.68 CAD. I do not see any reason for doubting the calculations of the authorities. </span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">Was some business entity, unknown to me, willing to make a loan? Or did Karen's own family, whom I do not know beyond a few rather casual encounters ending in 2014, chip in? )</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #444444;">In your perhaps challenging five-minute doorstep chat, you will additionally want to underscore the importance of checking whether Karen is blocking your particular interlocutor from viewing her Facebook materials (as she appears to be blocking me from viewing them: although I managed to get help in circumventing Karen's block, by fully legal means, in other words in learning what she has been posting, I should not have been driven to this extreme). If your interlocutor finds viewing of Karen's Facebook materials blocked, then point out that while Karen's blocking action is legal, it runs contrary to ordinary Ontario democratic principles. Consider at that point encouraging the lodging of reports with Elections Ontario (</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">1-888-668-8683; </span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: courier;">info@elections.on.ca</span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">), the Richmond Hill <i>Liberal</i>, and the CBC. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">And do of course consider supplying me with campaign updates, encouragement, admonitions - with any kind of feedback at all, as may prove convenient and safe for you - either via <span style="font-family: courier;">Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com</span> or via my shirt-pocket cellular phone here in Estonia. The phone is reached from Canada under the 14-digit number 011-372-5864-6540. Incoming calls may or may not be recorded by me. Note that Richmond Hill summer time lags Estonia summer time by seven hours. If for some reason I in my carelessness fail to pick up a voice call, send an SMS text, asking me to phone you back, and stating your number. (It is important to state your number when transmitting that international SMS. Experience indicates that the Estonian phone system cannot be expected always to log the number of a missed incoming international call. If I merely see on my phone a record of a missed call from an "unknown number", I will not be able to help you.) </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">In the long run, when Karen is defeated, she will see that as a properly public-spirited member of her election team, you were trying in your own circumscribed way to serve also her own highest and best interests, as a loyal friend must do. </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"> <b>==END OF CURRENT BLOGSPOT POSTING==</b></p>Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-67790755939000519492022-05-09T11:09:00.007-07:002022-05-09T13:14:18.569-07:00Toomas Karmo: Observing the 9th of May, In Terms that Offer Something to Everyone: как культурно, разумно и приятно<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thank you, <span>President Putin, for not doing the thing I feared you might do, namely celebrating today, May 9, with a tactical nuclear detonation at Azovstal. Thanks also to the people who carried out the successful <span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #030303; font-size: 14px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">NTV Plus-Rostelecom-Wink hack, causing online viewers in Russia to see a nice, clear "No to war" caption as commentary on coverage of the big parade: </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-9v-wU6wkcgxbT8cwgzIf4C7FLGEfPw8cEnXTHblTOCMIiMGekDnyFPnPLSW-tmu73j4uGomTQUYGqnAyQISm1696inIyKowhkG59zn8GcuBiMlQEeAqz0daOZvUOxu2kNlYLrU2cFoSBDpyrGrHcjdQArWM-FKKiX4o1XBKI4F0_jRckKaj4JsPm/s620/rostelecom_hack_red_square_parade_coverage.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="620" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-9v-wU6wkcgxbT8cwgzIf4C7FLGEfPw8cEnXTHblTOCMIiMGekDnyFPnPLSW-tmu73j4uGomTQUYGqnAyQISm1696inIyKowhkG59zn8GcuBiMlQEeAqz0daOZvUOxu2kNlYLrU2cFoSBDpyrGrHcjdQArWM-FKKiX4o1XBKI4F0_jRckKaj4JsPm/s320/rostelecom_hack_red_square_parade_coverage.webp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">From <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/18504544/putins-victory-day-parade-coverage-hacked-2/">https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/18504544/putins-victory-day-parade-coverage-hacked-2/</a>. </span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some will have appreciated the parade today, whether because of the hack or because they like parades. Such viewers might now enjoy <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smz6j9wZdoI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smz6j9wZdoI</a> (YouTube video entitled "Lambeth Walk: Putin Style (2021)", uploaded seven months ago by YouTube user "Wassermelone"). Others, for instance I here in rural Estonia, will have a more American taste in YouTube clips, and might accordingly now enjoy <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmfeNq5x5aQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmfeNq5x5aQ</a> (YouTube video entitled "God Bless America Sung by Kate Smith - This is the Army 1943 HD", uploaded a year ago by YouTube user "Inter-Pathé"). That's how the Internet works, folks: there is something for everyone. </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>====END OF BLOGSPOT POSTING====</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-34090804100892703042022-04-18T06:58:00.010-07:002022-04-27T11:22:50.181-07:00Toomas Karmo: Open Letter to His Eminence the Titular Metropolitan of Volokolamsk, Regarding Tactical Nuclear Weaponry <p style="text-align: justify;"><b style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; text-align: left;"><u>Quality assessment: </u></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 3/5. Justification: it is arguable that I knew enough to treat my subject adequately within the limited scope I set myself.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><u>Revision history:</u></b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>UTC=20220427T182100Z/version 1.1.0: Kmo made tiny change needed for accuracy regarding Tõravere cafeteria: queue, not trays. </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>UTC=20220418T135800Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo uploaded base version. He then planned to continue producing, in a way not documented here, minor tweaks, over the coming 96 hours, as versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, ... . . </b></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Your Eminence: You know as well as I, perhaps better than I (for I write as a layman, without significant links to any national government) that now, on the Monday which is 2022-04-18, one question above all others is taxing the best minds in Foreign Ministries and Ministries of Defence in Europe and North American, in Australia and New Zealand, and now crucially also in China. The question is: <i>How, without precipitating a nuclear tit-for-tat and World War Three, do we respond to the small, and yet no longer negligible, possibility of a Russian tactical nuclear detonation in Ukraine?</i> For China, in particular, with so much to lose from any widened conflict, and with so much commercial leverage over Russia, the question has surely the following accompaniment: <i>What mixture of commercial threats and commercial blandishments can we in Beijing make, in secretly arranged concert with our Western trading partners, to dissuade Russia from detonation?</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Although the prospect remains small, it looms somewhat larger from one day to the next as long as Mr V.V. Putin clings to power, evading the religious reclusion which remains his last and best personal hope. Mr Putin may be gone days or hours from now, following what is on at least some assessments the sad recent fate of Defence Minister Sergei Kuzhugetovich "cardiac patient" Shoigu. But (I repeat) Mr Putin's departure, if possible or probable, is not now a certainty. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And the prospect of a nuclear detonation might continue looming even after the conceivable departure of Mr Putin. Events have their own terrible inner logic, beyond the control of individuals. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">We can breathe more easily once the anniversary date of 9 May is behind us. Until then, it is as in the Taizé Passiontide hymn (use, for instance, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmAOcHqvS0Q">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmAOcHqvS0Q</a>) "Stay here with Me, remain here with Me, watch and pray..." </p><p style="text-align: justify;">You therefore need to see to it that your team, including your Patriarch, prepare a plan, especially as the politically and militarily charged anniversary date of 9 May (central in the contemporary militarized Russian culture) approaches. Perhaps the tactical nuclear strike will never happen. But if it does, say in the period of maximum current peril, around 1 May or 5 May, when the Kremlin is specially anxious to parade some kind of "success" in Ukraine, what will your team do?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">You might collectively today, on the Monday which is 2022-04-18, consider that the Kremlin government would be right in using a tactical nuke, as enhancing the nobility and moral worth of that thing-which-looks-like-a-war-but-is-not-even-though-tens-of-thousands-are-already-dead, that "special military operation", that специальная военная операция. In that case, your team at the Patriarchate must have a reasoned theological case written out, ready for publication at just a few minutes' notice, to reassure a public suddenly in acute need of spiritual guidance. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">You and your Patriarch might, on the other hand, follow me in considering a tactical nuclear detonation to be a criminal atrocity, akin to those clear atrocities which were Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or again akin to those clear atrocities which constituted the Shoah. In that case, once again, your team must have a reasoned theological argument written out, ready for publication at just a few minutes' notice. To undertake less preparation than that - no matter what your particular stance regarding the morality of a nuclear detonation - is in my respectfully submitted assessment to leave your flock inadequately shepherded. </p><p style="text-align: center;">****</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is helpful in the current situation to reflect on the historical, physical realities of the Passion and Resurrection. I would in this particular Easter season recommend the anatomist Dr Pierre Barbet (1884-1961), as an early worker in a line of investigation which has in more recent decades amassed additional scientific practitioners. You can find Dr Barbet's 1950 book, in a 1953 English translation, in <span style="font-family: inherit;">PDF format, by searching on such text strings as </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>barbet doctor at calvary translated by earl of wicklow pdf</b></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I would suggest that despite its great age, this is the work of a correctly disciplined scientific mind, and that subsequent investigations are likely to have altered Dr Barbet's findings in details, not in essence. Self-discipline, such as Dr Barbet musters, fortunately proves possible not only in maths and physics, but also in the fuzzier worlds of history and medicine.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It will to some minds appear unfortunate that Dr Barbet starts with the Shroud of Turin. Some, possibly including you, will join me in finding this a problematic beginning, since the Shroud has been dated by Carbon 14 measurements in our own day as mediaeval, not as a relic of classical antiquity. I for my part do note, however, admittedly without writing from any position of diligent study, that the Carbon 14 dating result has been recently called into question. We must on all accounts follow physical truth ruthlessly, being prepared to abandon our Faith itself should science give us conclusive reason for doing so, and to endure in that act of abandonment our own little crucifixion at the hands of community authorities. However, it may now be that a careful reexamination of Carbon 14 dating, far from undermining the plausibility of the Shroud, will leave the question of its dating once again open, as it was open for the so-careful Dr Barbet. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>The entire book is a bit long, as I have myself found on being forced to read it in a hurry. But it suffices to read Chapter 12, which recapitulates the essentials of Chapters 1 through 11 while adding fresh insights. In the 1953 publisher's page numbering, this is the chapter that starts on page 158. The start of Chapter 12 corresponds to “page 80” in the numbering imposed by my own Microsoft computer's PDF display software, and very l</span><span>ikely imposed by your software also. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>A caveat is necessary. </span><span>Dr Barbet's key Chapter 12</span><span> is marred by a perceptible and hideous, although not</span><span> quite in-your-face-Nazi, antisemitism. To my own mind, hideous</span><span> though the author's antisemitism is, it gives his</span><span> words added force, reminding one of the barbaric era </span><span>in which he is himself anchored. One literally cries out </span><span>at the computer screen, noting the author’s own historical</span><span> limitations as well as the unspeakable details of his ancient-Jerusalem researches. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>You may now reflect, Your Eminence, as a (1995) doctorally qualified theologian</span><span> from the same leading British school which gave me a 1979 philosophy doctorate:</span><span> this thing, this Roman execution, </span><span> happened, even as the assassination of "Ivlivs Caivs Caesar" happened, a</span><span>nd its medical details are likely to correspond, in a reasonable approximation, </span><span>to Dr Barbet's anatomically informed reconstructions: </span><span>in the face of this thing,</span><span> I, Hilarion the Titular Metropolitan of Volokolamsk,</span><span> have as a shepherd of souls a duty to make up my mind now</span><span> regarding the morality or immorality of a</span><span> possible tactical nuclear detonation in Ukraine. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Here "now" means "now, in the week of 2022-04-18",</span><span> not next week, and not </span><span>in procrastination as late as the</span><span> week of 9 May. Y</span><span>ou, being as a Western-educated Titular Metropolitan no stranger to the</span><span> realities of public life, can </span><span>picture still more clearly than I </span><span>the eventual n</span><span>ational panic under the minute-to-minute pressure of events </span><span>in the geopolitical crisis which a detonation would precipitate. The</span><span> detonation, if it comes, will see television</span><span> programmes not in Russia alone, but in every industrialized nation, </span><span>interrupted for special bulletin upon special bulletin. The</span><span> horror, if it comes, may well see</span> parts of the media, including parts accessible to ordinary Russians, indicating to their terrified audiences that Kremlin decision-makers have been spotted exiting Moscow. You cannot wait for images of exit helicopters to fill your personal screen. To do less than prepare now, this week, would be to abdicate your personal pastoral responsibility at the foot of the Cross. </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">****</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Easter is a time of rebirth. What might rebirth mean in the present circumstances, with a morally resolute Ukraine standing up to a brutalized and depressed Red Army, and with a pampered and decadent West now seeking for itself a moral courage at least dimly mirroring Ukraine's?</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I will not examine possibilities for the West here, beyond saying that if some expanding 2022 nuclear war does not destroy us all, then over coming decades Western people can unite in peaceful and legal ways against those twin Western evils which are <i>(a)</i> the supranational corporations (the past beneficiaries, in many instances, of post-1991 Russian commerce) and <i>(b)</i> the corporate facilitators, our corrupt (our hired, our purchased) Western parliamentary factions. These are not factions on the "Populist Right" alone, but factions ranging across much of the current Western parliamentary spectrum, in most or all Western democracies, here in Estonia and far afield. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One such peaceful and legal way will be the rejection of a consumerist lifestyle, and concomitantly with that rejection a return to personal minimalism - through a simple, straightforward, "Refusal to Buy", through a straightforward "Insistence on Simple Living", in any case needed as we Western citizens strive alongside our often-clumsy governments to support Ukraine. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As regards Russia, I suggest that scant hope can be now placed in government. How can a government structure be endorsed which recruits even infants to its cult of war, as reflected in those familiar Internet photos? You are unlikely to need such photos yourself. And yet to ensure that my point becomes fully clear I do supply you with two of them. They will serve to remind you and my wider readership of the extent to which public authorities now betray the Gospel, or at any rate connive in its betrayal:</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo8FJOYytIgT-ZUXawaSOrrEDjBTvVLbkzkXVpMhnkvqKWdUB43HYERSnqVGWVjIDJhshqp4b1pZ8EaVo2eVnFPUd3JXZOxTobXOwnB1DSrG1JHp51hTXzSCAkmV6VccM4hZRCE5OYSKUQ_Yt0CBQhkiq6L-Nw7RK6RjQNUsLHYSNukvIt-UcjAAsH/s1360/pyatigorsk_20190509_preschool_children_uniforms_rifles__moscow_times.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="765" data-original-width="1360" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo8FJOYytIgT-ZUXawaSOrrEDjBTvVLbkzkXVpMhnkvqKWdUB43HYERSnqVGWVjIDJhshqp4b1pZ8EaVo2eVnFPUd3JXZOxTobXOwnB1DSrG1JHp51hTXzSCAkmV6VccM4hZRCE5OYSKUQ_Yt0CBQhkiq6L-Nw7RK6RjQNUsLHYSNukvIt-UcjAAsH/s320/pyatigorsk_20190509_preschool_children_uniforms_rifles__moscow_times.png" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><b>Photo: Moscow Times, 2019-05-10, reporting 9 May festivities in Pyatigorsk.</b></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <br /></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsbpmjy94sqxcgzv3P2SRvzdw--uLZv9DcMfzO2FmzK63JNdxHmJwRWLefj6EmyUDi2QRIMyrVIiFYm09T1pdbKreEQPfWiVOEVpeVcNkOQNq_Y18cw1aBhUoQeMro_p2ZssO77lFDLkvoR7To0YPo4l6ftu0H44kN7HmOISKk9kqFwSEzCqtT-d2q/s1920/quoradotcom____infants_in_stroller_representing_WW2_tank.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1276" data-original-width="1920" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsbpmjy94sqxcgzv3P2SRvzdw--uLZv9DcMfzO2FmzK63JNdxHmJwRWLefj6EmyUDi2QRIMyrVIiFYm09T1pdbKreEQPfWiVOEVpeVcNkOQNq_Y18cw1aBhUoQeMro_p2ZssO77lFDLkvoR7To0YPo4l6ftu0H44kN7HmOISKk9kqFwSEzCqtT-d2q/s320/quoradotcom____infants_in_stroller_representing_WW2_tank.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">Photo:</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: courier;"> <a href="https://therussianreader.com/2021/12/28/yigal-levin-do-russians-want-war/">https://therussianreader.com/2021/12/28/yigal-levin-do-russians-want-war/</a></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">. </span></span></b></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Some hope remains, on the other hand, for the efforts of your Russian natural scientists, your Russian historians, and your other Russian intellectuals, as local witnesses to Truth. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And there is hope, if we care to see it, in your own Russian Orthodox Church. You know better than I the decay which has for centuries beset Russian Orthodoxy. The Vatican has the unfortunate distinction of having in recent years operated (owned? leased?) a helicopter, capable of shuttling at least between Vatican City and the suburban Castel Gandolfo. You, on the other hand, have perhaps yourself boarded, as I have not, the yacht "placed at the disposal of the Patriarch" should his pastoral duties happen to take him to the isolated monastery of Valaam. Pope Francis lives in a kind of hostel-for-prelates, foregoing the private traditional papal apartments, and is said to take his meals in a cafeteria alongside ecclesial colleagues, much as we do at the observatory campus here in Tõravere, with our humble cafeteria queue. In the Patriarchy, simplicity is less prized. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Further, you have likely set foot, as I have not, in the new Moscow Oblast "Military Cathedral". You, Your Eminence, know this gargantuan celebration of militarism better than I, and my other readers can quickly research it through (for example)</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/20/orthodox-cathedral-of-the-armed-force-russian-national-identity-military-disneyland">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/20/orthodox-cathedral-of-the-armed-force-russian-national-identity-military-disneyland</a> . </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It remains the case that your Church has the graces to lead a national spiritual revival, in concert with constructive, anti-consumerist, social forces in the West, notably with forces allied to the Holy See. It has the graces to lead that revival in the teeth, if necessary, of whatever enigmatic factions may this year be emerging in some enigmatic post-Putin Kremlin. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I do not call you to martyrdom in the manner of Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Saint Franz Jägerstätter or Saint Edith Stein. In calling you to articulate your stand in the face of a possible tactical nuclear strike in Ukraine, I call you only to what seems possible from a human standpoint. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I additionally herewith join, as an obscure Catholic layman, with western ecclesial authorities, including a former Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, in calling for a Ukraine ceasefire to mark the Russian Orthodox Easter, and I join with Pope Francis in the recent prayers consecrating Russia and Ukraine to Our Lady. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, I herewith enjoin you from the theologically unassailable position of a lay pastoral supplicant, obedient to my Bishop, to my local Nuncio, and to the Vatican - and I do so in the name of Christ, thereby presuming even to bind you - to acknowledge receipt of this present (e-mail, papermail, and </span><span style="font-family: courier;">blogspot</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">) communication. My previous efforts at obtaining receipts of communication from you have failed, in large part through my own ineptitude. As time passes, however, I become better in my various methods, and I remain in this Easter season hopeful of success. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>==END OF CURRENT BLOGSPOT POSTING==</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-36024655495952553902022-04-09T01:42:00.002-07:002022-04-09T01:49:52.195-07:00Toomas Karmo: Nähtavalt Eredaimate Tähtede Astrofüüsiline Ülevaade, 2022 / Astrophysical Overview of the Visually Brightest Stars, 2022<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCDm9hiibQeMnrALJXX_3A4_tOX3KOFrezX_RFlWzOXceXtP796iQny-K8TeOqqNbf2Hr2NfX4DR6aKz74DhGo7XkwRRiDbsURDmKA_NUoTpz_abOuysyRyB32KKEKn2CrhmbpxkVmijA7jNeszzAUIu_QXrwkQACh1smL7Rx1qrG4eMEUtbaLyBCO/s1280/ekraanipilt____20220409T080148Z.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1280" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCDm9hiibQeMnrALJXX_3A4_tOX3KOFrezX_RFlWzOXceXtP796iQny-K8TeOqqNbf2Hr2NfX4DR6aKz74DhGo7XkwRRiDbsURDmKA_NUoTpz_abOuysyRyB32KKEKn2CrhmbpxkVmijA7jNeszzAUIu_QXrwkQACh1smL7Rx1qrG4eMEUtbaLyBCO/s320/ekraanipilt____20220409T080148Z.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Kuvatõmmis minu Debian GNU/Linuxi arvutilt. Ühes brauseri aknas eredaimate tähetede essee oma 2022.a. versioonis, nagu seda saab lugeda RASC serverist, teises brauseri aknas minu 2019-01-19 blogspot essee varema versiooni teemal, kusjuures ka mõned fotod talvisest Tartu observatooriumi pimedataeva linnakust, mõni sada meetrit minu töötoast. Xterm akendes jooksevad vaated 2022.a. versiooni tugimärkmetesse. Nagu alati blogspotis, saab pilti suurendada klõpsuga esimesele (vasakpoolsele) hiirenupule. - <b><i>Screenshot from my Debian GNU/Linux computer. In one browser window is my brightest-stars essay in its 2022 version, as avilable from the RASC server, and in the other browser window my 2019-01-19 blogspot essay on the topic of an earlier version.This is accompanied by some photos of the Tartu Obsrvatory dark-sky campus, a few hundred metres from my workroom. In the xterm windows are views into the 2022 version working notes. As always in blogspot, the image can be enlarged by clicking on the first (the leftrmost) mouse button. </i></b></span></div><p></p><p><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span face="arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><u><b>Kvaliteedihinnang: - </b><i><b>Quality assessment:</b></i></u></span></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Selle viiepallilise skaala kohaselt, mis kehtib praegu Eestis, ja kindlasti ka naaberriikides, ja on tuttav kadunud, mitte tagantjärele leinatud, NSVL-i akadeemilise elu vaatlejatele (siin rakendades neid kergeid, lõtvu, kriteeriume, mida Kmo rakendab oma nõgises fantaseeritud "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimelises sangarliku raadio instituudis" ja oma nõgises fantaseeritud "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevki nimelises sotsialistliku matemaatika instituudis" - kus, fantaasias ette kujutatud kaksikinstituutide lõdva ja vähenõudliku hindamisreeglite kohaselt 1/5 on "eepiline läbikukkukmine", 2/5 "läbikukkumine, mis pole nii katastrofaalne, et eepilusust saavutada", 3/5 on "kehvavõitu läbipääsemine", 4/5 on "hea" ja 5/5 on "eeskujulik": 2/5. Põhjendus: Teema ei võimaldanud sügavat käsitlemist. - <i>On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 2/5. Justification: The chosen theme did not provide opportunities for depth. </i><br /><br /><br /><u>Variandikroonika: - <i>Revision history</i>:</u><br /><br />Kõik kalendrip</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">äevad-kellaajad variandikroonikas on ära toodud UTC-s. UTC, ehk "Maailmakell", on vana GMT-i, ehk "Greenwich Mean Time"-i, täpsustus. Tarvitusel on ISO ettekirjutatud YYYYMMDDThhmmZ ajastembi formaat (kusjuures YYYY on UTC aasta, MM UTC kuu, DD UTC kuupäev, hh UTC tunniarv, mm UTC minutiarv). UTC praegu jookseb Toronto tsiviilkellast 4 tundi ette, Tallinna tsiviilkellast 3 tundi taga. - <i>All times in these blog "revision histories" are stated in UTC (Universal Coordinated Time/ Temps Universel Coordoné, a precisification of the old GMT, or "Greenwich Mean Time"), in the ISO-prescribed YYYYMMDDThhmmZ timestamping format. UTC currently leads Toronto civil time by 4 hours and currently lags Tallinn civil time by 3 hours.</i></span></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i><br /></i></span></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"><ul><li><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">20220409T084200Z/versioon 1.0.0 : Kmo koostas algversioonii, jättes endale õiguse teha timmimisi, kui siin mitte dokumenteeritud versioonid 1.0.1,1.0.2, ... , järgmise 96 tunni ookul. <i>- Kmo produced a base version, reserving the right to make small adjustments, as here-undocumented versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, ... , over the coming 96 hours. </i></span></b></li></ul></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Uueaasta päeval 2018.a., minu viimase Kanadas elamise aasta alguses, ma postitasin oma peamisele blogiruumile, kui <a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/01/toomas-karmo-visually-brightest-stars.html">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/01/toomas-karmo-visually-brightest-stars.html</a>, esssee pealkirjaga "The Visually Brightest Stars (Fresh RASC Publishing Initiatives)". Siin "RASC" on Kanada amatööastronoomide selts, ametlikult "Royal Astronomical Society of Canada". Mainitud 2018.a. "Publishing Initiatives", ehk "kirjanduslikud algatused", hõlmasid RASC-i vaatleja käsiraamatu seni laiemat raamatuturule pakkumist, nüüd kahes paralleelses variandis. 2018. aastast saadik oli üks variant suunatud Kanada, teine aga USA lugejaskonnale. Selle juures oli ka minu visuaalselt eredaimate tähtede astrofüüsilise ülevaate esimene koostamine RASC-i serveril, kui PDF-väljaanne kättesaadav ülemaailmsele lugejaskonnale (nii RASC-i liikmetele kui ka laiemale avalikkusele, kasvõi Eestis). Sama teema on käsitletud siin ka kuupäeval 2019-01-19, kui <a href="https://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2019/01/">https://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2019/01/</a>. <span style="text-align: left;"> - <b><i>On New Year's Day in 2018, at the start of my final year of residence in Canada, I posted to my principal blogging space, as </i></b></span><b><i><a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/01/toomas-karmo-visually-brightest-stars.html">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/01/toomas-karmo-visually-brightest-stars.html</a>, an essay under the title "The Visually Brightest Stars (Fresh RASC Publishing Initiatives)". Here "RASC" is Canada's association for amateur astronomers, formally the "Royal Astronomical Society of Canada". These 2018 "Publishing Initiatives" included a widened offering of the RASC observer's handbook to the book market, now in two parallel variants. From 2018 onward, one variant was directed to Canadian, the other to USA readers. Along with this was my own first compilation of a brightest-stars astrophysical overview on the RASC server, as a PDF accessible world-wide (both to RASC members and to the general public, Estonia included). The same theme is discussed here also under the date 2019-01-19, as <a href="https://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2019/01/">https://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2019/01/</a>.</i></b></p><p style="text-align: center;">****</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Praegu juhiksin tähelepanu ülevaate värskeima, ehk 2022.a., versiooni ilmumisele RASC-i serveril, ikka kui PDF kättesaadav igas riigis. Ülevaade on aastast aastasse kasvanud. Praegune, ehk 2022.a., versioon hõlmab 106 lehekülge. Sissejuhatavas essees, 2022.a. umbes 26 lehekülje ulatuses, pannakse erilist rõhku spektraalsele (Morgan-Keenan ehk "MK") klassifitseerimisele, tähtede evolutsioonile MK kontekstis, Be-fenomenile (kus noorevõitu, kuum, kiiresti pöörlev täht heidab välja ekvatoriaalselt ümbritseva, nii fotomeetriliselt kui spektroskoopiliselt tajutava, hiigelketta) ja (esimest korda 2022.a.) binaarsete süsteemide iseärasustele. - <b><i>I would now direct attention to the publication of the most recent, i.e. the 2022, version on the RASC server, still as a PDF accessible from all countries. The overview has grown from year to year. The current (2022) version comprises 106 pages. In the prefatory essay, in 2022 running to about 26 pages, special emphasis is placed on spectral (Morgan-Keenan, or "MK") classification, on stellar evolution in the MK context, on the Be phenomenon (where a youngish, hot, rapidly spinning star ejects a huge surrounding equatorial disk, observable both in photometry and in spectroscopy) and (for the first time in 2022) the properties of binaries.</i></b> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Eesseele juurdekuuluvas tabelis, kus on käsitletud umbes 320 eri visuaalselt ereda tähe astrofüüsilisi omadusi, ma juhiksin hetkel erilist tähelepanu delta Sco umbes leheküljepikkusele kirjeldusele. Binaarne süsteem delta Sco, viimastel aastakümnetel hakanud ootamatult esitlema Be-fenomeni tunnuseid, läbib oma periastroni 2022.a. maikuus. Sealjuures on spektroskoopia ja fotomeetria soovitavad, ka amatööride tasemel, nii enne kui ka mitu kuud pärast periastroni. <b><i>- In the table accompanying the essay, which examines the astrophysical propertiesof about 320 visually bright stars, I would at the moment direct particular attention to the discussion (about a page in length) of delta Sco. The binary system delta Sco, which in recent decades has unexpectedly begun to present the Be phenomenology, is passing through periastron in May of 2022. Spectroscopic and photometric observations are desirable, including observations at an amateur standard, both before the periastron and for many months after it. </i></b></p><p style="text-align: center;">****</p><p style="text-align: justify;">PDF-i kätteleidmiseks võib <i>(a)</i> külastada koduleht <a href="https://www.rasc.ca/">https://www.rasc.ca/</a>, siis <i>(b)</i> "Publications" menüüst valida "Observer's Handbook", siis <i>(c)</i> antud "Publications" lehekülje vasemal asuvast menüüst valida "Supplemenents" ja siis lõpuks <i>(d)</i> antud "Supplements" leheküljelt klõpsutada hüperlingile "Brightest Star supplemental essay as on p. 275 of OH 2022". Ma pakuksin aga siinsamas ka otsese ajutise lingi, mis vist töötab kuni praegusi versiooni väljavahetamiseni, kunagi 2023.a. esimestel kuudel: <span style="text-align: left;"> <a href="https://www.rasc.ca/sites/default/files/Brightest_Stars_OH2022a.pdf">https://www.rasc.ca/sites/default/files/Brightest_Stars_OH2022a.pdf</a> . - <b><i>To access the PDF, one may proceed as follows: (a) visit the homepage </i></b></span><b><i><a href="https://www.rasc.ca/">https://www.rasc.ca/</a>; then (b) from the "Publications" menu, select "Observer's Handbook"; then (c) from the menu near the left edge of the "Publications" page, select "Supplements"; and finally (d) from the "Supplements" page, click on the hyperlink "Brightest Star supplemental essay as on p. 275 of OH 2022". I would also here offer a direct temporary link, liable to remain live until the updating of the current version, at some point in the first months of 2023: <br /></i></b><b><i><a href="https://www.rasc.ca/sites/default/files/Brightest_Stars_OH2022a.pdf" style="text-align: left;">https://www.rasc.ca/sites/default/files/Brightest_Stars_OH2022a.pdf</a><span style="text-align: left;"> .</span></i></b></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;">****</div>Selgeid taevaid kõigile! - <b><i>Clear skies to all! </i></b><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>==PRAEGUSE BLOGSPOTI POSTITUSE LÕPP / </b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><i>END OF CURRENT BLOGSPOT POSTING</i>==</b></p>Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-34980519320363703972022-04-03T09:46:00.001-07:002022-04-03T12:56:02.096-07:00Toomas Karmo: Open Letter to Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, and to His Eminence the Titular Metropolitan of Volokolamsk<p style="text-align: left;"><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><u>Quality assessment: </u></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 2/5. Justification: it is arguable that I knew enough to treat my subject adequately within the limited scope I set myself, an d yet the scope was VERY limited. (Sorry, although I did at first try to award myself 3/5, the Institutes insisted on going down to 2/5. Even the grubby hinterland has its standards.) </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><u>Revision history:</u></b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>UTC=20220403T1645000Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo uploaded base version. He then planned to continue producing, in a way not documented here, minor tweaks, over the coming 96 hours, as versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, ... . . </b></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">War is liable to bring out the worst in everyone, not only in the people we oppose but within our own ranks. We recall, for instance, the problematic course of the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the 1939-1945 war. Their fight - conducted with an entire nation, arguably much of an entire continent, under existential threat - fell safely with in the scope of Catholic "Justified War" theory. By the time the war was in its later phases, however, the RAF was carpet-bombing German civilians. The RAF became (to take one example from several possible) complicit in the July 1943 Hamburg firestorm. From that firestorm, German civilians in basements sheltered in vain. Winds in the streets attained speeds estimated at around 65 m/s or 70 m/s, in other words approximating the worst of all recorded hurricanes. So intense was the heat that even asphalt burst into flame. In some instances, the number of casualties in basements had to be estimated roughly, from the quantity of human ash. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I could reinforce this lesson in human wartime depravity by first documenting the high moral tone of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, then citing those American war crimes, with still more civilian victims than in Hamburg, which were Hiroshima and Nagasaki. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">And I recall from my Estonian-exile childhood, in Canada, an album (I saw it in the <i>Reader's Digest</i> Condensed Books version) entitled <i>German Faces</i>. There were photo portraits of brave, civically minded 1945-era Germans. There were photo portraits of opportunistic 1945-era Germans working the black market; of complacent 1945-era Germans (fortunate in never being bombed), cold toward their own internal refugees; of embittered Germans; and of at least one youthful fanatical German, praising the songs he had been accustomed to singing under the now-extinguished Reich.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I was much taken at the time, and I still recall with anguish, the portrait photo of a mother and child, some quite tiny "Gerhard" or "Heinz". The mother explained to the author how things had gone for her with the Red Army. Since I do not have text and photo in front of me here in Estonia, I can now only paraphrase. What I read back then, roughly six decades ago, ran something like this: "So they did it, in the snow. I don't know how I kept track, but I did keep track: twenty-two times. One of them was different from the others, shy. The others said, 'Go on, do it, do it.' He did not want to, but eventually he did it too. I like to think that he is the father of little Heinz, here."</p><p style="text-align: center;">****</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now we have Monsieur le Président Vladimir Vladimirovich inflicting spiritual harm, committing an assault, on Syrian men. Details can be had from various sources, for instance from </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-60931180">https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-60931180</a></li><li><a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/some-syrian-veterans-ready-ukraine-fight-commanders-say-2022-03-20/">https://www.reuters.com/world/some-syrian-veterans-ready-ukraine-fight-commanders-say-2022-03-20/</a></li><li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/18/syrians-join-russian-ranks-in-ukraine-as-putin-calls-in-assads-debt">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/18/syrians-join-russian-ranks-in-ukraine-as-putin-calls-in-assads-debt</a></li></ul><p></p><p>The current Russian President's deal is this: <i>You, a Syrian, can fight in Ukraine; we will pay you many times more than you could hope to earn in Syria; and in the event of your death, your family members back home will receive a monetary death benefit.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I need not dwell on the morality of dangling such an obscene temptation before traumatized men with starving families. You, Your Eminence the Titular Metropolitan of Volokolamsk, will agree with me that your President errs in proffering such a temptation. You will agree with me, as a trained theologian from my own UK university and sharing my own Faith, that the judgement of history may prove heavier on your current President than on those poor Syrians who in their weakness may soon be taking his bait. I beg of you in Christ, as I renew my efforts to get letters to you, that you discuss the theology with him directly, or alternatively with him through your Patriarch, pressing me also into back-channel service in any way you can devise. <span style="text-align: left;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: center;">****</p><p style="text-align: justify;">War (to reiterate) is liable to bring out the worst in everyone, from the brutalized rank-and-file of the 1940s Red Army right up to the 1940s RAF élite. What, now, would be an appropriate response from Kyiv to the emerging Syria problem? How can the Ukrainian side, at least, avoid sinking into Mr Putin's theological morass?<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">If Syrian mercenaries should come, Kyiv must avoid the temptation to a reciprocal brutality. "They are combat-hardened soldiers" - it might be pleaded in extenuation - "accustomed to inflicting cruelty, and moreover fighting over here from commercial motives; let our lads give them what they deserve." Very well then: let those Syrians be as hardened as we may choose to imagine; let them share even in the brutality of 1945 Red Army personnel in Berlin: brutality must on no account be reciprocated with brutality. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Some skilled people within the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine may now be able to reach out in Arabic and English to these incoming wretches, in terms that they will understand, despite their limited access to information, and moreover in terms that do not ask the emotionally impossible of them. Let there be no preaching. Let us reserve our homilies for Monsieur le Président Putin, via (so I hope and pray, admittedly still here groping in darkness) His Eminence my so-far-silent Oxford confrère the Titular Metropolitan of Volokolamsk. For the mercenaries, let Kyiv make merely an offer, of the simplest kind, by way of a counter-offer to the offer that brought them into Ukraine:<i> If in a spirit of adroit cooperation you let yourself be "captured" by "unexpectedly materializing Ukrainian forces", then we for our part will provide you employment in some steady and physically safe capacity in the west of Ukraine, far from the killing fields. In legal documentation, you will be a prisoner of war. In physical reality, on the other hand, you will be a manual worker. Paying due regard to your </i>de facto<i> status of worker, we will pay you ten percent more than <span style="text-align: left;"> Moscow would have paid you to fight in the far east of Ukraine. Additionally, mindful of your sad reasons for having attempted to fight, we will facilitate the remitting of your pay (should you desire this) to your impoverished family back home in Syria. </span></i></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">****</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">Servant of God </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Екатерина Фёдоровна де Гук-Дохерти</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">, урождённая </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Колышкина, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">witness to the spiritual mission of Russia in the family of nations, intercede for us now. </span> <br /> </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>====END OF BLOGSPOT POSTING====</b></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-33892811939366109142022-03-27T09:45:00.005-07:002022-03-27T12:17:57.369-07:00Toomas Karmo: Immediate Monastic Reclusion Advisable: An Open Letter to President V.V. Putin and His Eminence the Titular Metropolitan of Volokolamsk <p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><u>Quality assessment: </u></b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 3/5. Justification: it is arguable that I knew enough to treat my subject adequately within the limited scope I set myself. </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><u>Revision history:</u></b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>UTC=20220327T1644000Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo uploaded base version. He then planned to continue producing, in a way not documented here, minor tweaks, over the coming 96 hours, as versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, ... . . </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #202122;">I write herewith, in the format of an Open Letter, both to </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;">Monsieur le Président Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and to a putatively solid professional theologian,</span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #202122;">Hilarion Alfeyev, Titular </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #202122;">Metropolitan of Volokolamsk (in previous secular life Dr </span><span style="color: #202122;">Grigoriy Valerievich Alfeyev). </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">I turn to the titular Metropolitan as a person</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"> from my own University, although not from my own College (St John's in my case, Pembroke in his), and not quite of my own generation (we have an age difference of just over 13 years, and consistently with this he and I finished our doctoral work at university in 1995 and 1979 respectively), and not of comparable standing canonically (he, a person of high authority in the Moscow Patriarchy, and I an obscure layman under the Holy See, unconnected to any national government). Although </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">one does not normally work the academic "Old Boy Network", working this network does become advisable in the current diplomatic emergency. </span></span></p><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: inherit;">I now solemnly ask of the Metropolitan, and I ask it in the name of Christ, daring in that Name even to bind, to the extent that a layman can in conscience bind: Your Eminence, do not leave this letter unacknowledged; have someone in your team (optimally you yourself; otherwise, some other official) acknowledge receipt, somehow, in terms that I can make publicly known, through such means</span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">as my <a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com">toomaskarmo.blogspot.com</a>. </span></div></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Your Eminence, you may initially ask to what extent a layman can presume to bind. In answer to this I note that if I were to seek the Sacrament of Penance from you, you could not in conscience turn me away, and that here I approach you in an analogously grave pastoral context. </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;">****</p><p>Appealing, then, to what I consider an unassailable pastoral-theology position as supplicant, I proceed boldly. </p><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;">Your Eminence, what may I respectfully and humbly I ask from you, having now gained the ear which you are in correct pastoral theology obliged to turn to me? I ask, once again in the name of Christ, that having in the first instance caused receipt of my letter to be acknowledged, you as a next step cause this Open Letter to be seen by appropriate persons, in such a way that its content becomes known over the coming hours to Monsieur le Président V.V. Putin. One possible intermediary in your work might be your canonical superior Patriarch Kirill, who I believe has in at any rate peacetime been in a position to communicate directly and personally with the President. But perhaps other possibilities exist for you also. </div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;">****</p><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;">Monsieur le Président, events have evolved in ways worse than those rationally conceivable when I composed my Open Letter to you on 2022-01-24. I could not resort to deliberately inaccurate language in writing to you in Open Letter format at <a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com">toomaskarmo.blogspot.com</a> on 2022-01-24. I said, in due honesty back then, that I did not think you would be so ill-advised as to launch a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. Still less can I resort to deliberate inaccuracy in writing to you now, on the one hand (as before, on 2022-01-24) through open publication at <a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com">toomaskarmo.blogspot.com</a> and on the other hand now through the private intermediation of His Eminence the Titular Metropolitan of Volokolamsk. </div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Without being exhaustive, and in particular without venturing into the details of alleged war crimes (although I do note in passing the current forensic salience of the <span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;">Донецкий академический областной драматический театр </span>in Mariupol), I set down three key points. From these you can construct the rest, as a paleontologist might reconstruct his entire dinosaur from jawbone, vertebra, and femur:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><ul><li>Your communications are in disarray. I have seen an image of absurdly primitive Red Army radio gear, allegedly deployed in Ukraine, in the form of a cheap, perhaps two-band, VHF portable, lacking encryption. This is the type of gear that might have been sold 30 years ago by Radioworld in Toronto to some frugal youngster who had just passed his Industry Canada "Basic" amateur-radio exam. And in my Internet headphones, I hear what purports to be the recording of a Red Army voice conversation regarding a search for avenues of retreat. Consistently with that primitive VHF walkie-talkie image, I note that both sides in what I hear are transmitting <i>en clair</i>, contrary to elementary military communications discipline. </li><li>Your fuel and food are in disarray. Monsieur le Président, you can find, as I have, Internet material alleging the deliberate spillage of fuel by Red Army personnel, desperate for their own safety, seeking to halt an advance, or again YouTube ciné material showing Red Army personnel looting the shelves of a small grocery shop, or again an Internet still photo showing package documentation for a Red Army Meal-Ready-to-Eat ("MRE"). According to the photo, 2015 was the year of expiration. </li><li>Portions of your troops are already in open rebellion. Monsieur le Président, I would draw your attention to Ukrainian television-interview footage of penitent Russian soldiers, begging forgiveness as they recall their participation in what I myself would characterize as a fratricidal mission. Again, I would respectfully draw your attention to the Daily Mail allegation (<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10652501/Russian-commander-deliberately-run-tank-soldiers-DIED.html">https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10652501/Russian-commander-deliberately-run-tank-soldiers-DIED.html</a>) that Colonel Yuri Medvedev, from the 37th Motor Rifle Brigade, died from a vehicle attack mounted by his own men. </li></ul><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;">Monsieur le Président, if this situation is allowed to continue, you face something more radical than the already-commenced destruction of your economy. You face something more radical than the already-commenced ruin of Russia's standing within the United Nations. You face, if not today then in 2023 or 2024 or 2025 or so, the situation V.I. Ulyanov (operationally "V.I.Lenin") <span style="text-align: left;">faced after 1917 </span><span style="text-align: left;">- the descent, namely, of Russia from mere disorder into civil war.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">****</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In my "Open Letter" of 2022-01-24, I noted to you that politics is the art of the possible and the second-best. Today I address you not in terms of Realpolitik, but in ethical and theological terms, with the duly skilled assistance of His Eminence the Metropolitan of Volokolamsk. Your life has not been fully safe for years. Now, however, every day and hour counts. To extract good from your disintegrating situation now, you must use what time remains to make yourself the instrument, however weak and damaged, of God. Your position has deteriorated to a point requiring your monastic reclusion not in the near-term future, but today. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Let others grab the levers of government, perhaps initially under your own guidance from behind monastery gates. How much power is left to you now? Surely there is some residual power, which you can exercise even from religious reclusion, should you succeed - as I conjecture you can succeed - in arranging robust, persistent, encrypted Internet communications for yourself. You retain that power through a sheer volume of administrative knowledge, amassed over two or three or four decades. Your residual power can be used to guide some events for some modest span of time, as you steer your successors away from the 2023 or 2024 or 2025 precipice of Russian civil war. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the monastery, you will be what you cannot hope to be outside it, namely a living refutation of the Marxist-Leninist conception of historical developments as determined and inevitable. On that dark conception, individuals are depicted as the hapless captives of overwhelming, ultimately politico-economic, "dialectical" materialist forces. <span style="text-align: left;">You are Christian, and His Eminence the Titular Metropolitan of Volokolamsk is a Christian, and I am a Christian; I know in the light of Easter that this dark conception is mistaken, and so does His Eminence, and so do you. </span></p><p style="text-align: center;">****</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Having disclaimed the intention to write in Realpolitische terms, I nevertheless do append a single Realpolitische point. With every passing hour, not only the safety of Russia at large, but your own personal safety in your alleged three principal bunkers-of-refuge, with their allegedly identical television broadcasting studios, becomes progressively less assured. From a monastery, you will be placing some physical distance between yourself and at least some of those whom I presume to be now seeking your liquidation. This is particularly the case if, working the back-channels of Holy See diplomacy, <span style="text-align: left;">you succeed in securing refuge in some monastery outside Russia, </span><span style="text-align: left;"> perhaps under the canonical jurisdiction of Rome rather than of Patriarch Kirill. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Suppose, to take an extreme example, that you were to obtain refuge not even at some monastic foundation in Estonia or Sweden or Switzerland or the like (helpful though that would already be), but in Vatican City itself. You would in that case have abundant specialist personnel, in the form of the trained and prayerful </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Cohors Pedestris Helvetiorum a Sacra Custodia Pontificis</i><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">,</span><span style="text-align: left;"> to protect you from plutonium tea, from </span><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Новичок</span><span style="text-align: left;">, from treacherous doctors, and from other such hazards. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Admittedly, if you were to take refuge in some foreign monastery or other, </span><span style="text-align: left;">you might eventually - depending, perhaps, on your concrete choice of host nation - face extradition either to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or to some ad hoc war-crimes tribunal. Here, again, however, things are not quite black for you. God is merciful. Upon successful extradition from your selected monastery into civil custody, for instance at The Hague, </span><span style="text-align: left;">your level of personal protection would not decline. On the contrary, it would rise still farther. No ICC panel, not even any ad hoc tribunal in the style of 1946 Nürnberg, could want its proceedings perturbed by the ill health of the individual under trial. </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"> ****</p><p>How now to proceed? </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Monsieur le Président, you may find it helpful to meet your Metropolitan quietly, perhaps even with me present. Should I seem to your staff to be a potentially helpful facilitator - I stress that although you and I are culturally somewhat distanced, His Eminence the Metropolitan and I would meet as academic peers, both of us of course communicating in impeccable English from backgrounds of humanistic erudition, and with his Eminence additionally helping the three of us overcome the hurdle which is my scanty Russian - do please have your people make rapid contact with me. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Setting personal caution aside, I respectfully suggest, Monsieur le Président, that when your people communicate, under duly convincing authentication (three-minute personal interview in your Tallinn Embassy, with your Head of Mission, with my camera running?) the wish to conduct a one-hour three-way meeting, I will boldly strive to overrule the conceivable objections of my Foreign Ministry, will cross from Estonia into Russia at some such convenient point as Koidula or Narva with my Estonian passport (being an excellent hiker, I can easily walk the final few kilometres on foot), and will pay my own economy-class fare from your frontier to Moscow by suitable buses or trains. I would seek the operational assistance of your team only in the matter of securing simple, low-cost, no-frills accommodation for one or two or so nights in Moscow, optimally in some monastery. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">E-mail obviously works (Toomas[dot]Karmo[at]gmail[dot]com). But so also does voice telephone and basic SMS text message (in both cases, as <span style="text-align: left;">three-seven-two five-eight-six-four-six-five-four-zero). </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">****</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sainte </span>Thérèse de Lisieux, pray for us; <span style="text-align: left;">Saint Franz Jägerstätter, pray for us; </span><span style="text-align: left;">Servant of God </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; text-align: left;">Екатерина Фёдоровна де Гук-Дохерти</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; text-align: left;">, урождённая </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; text-align: left;">Колышкина, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; text-align: left;">witness to the spiritual mission of Russia in the family of nations, intercede for us now. </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>====END OF BLOGSPOT POSTING====</b></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p>Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-46244596323331016382022-03-20T10:21:00.000-07:002022-03-20T10:21:27.323-07:00Toomas Karmo: Short Open Letter to Russian Diplomats and Russian BGP-Router Administrators <p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b> <u>Quality assessment: </u></b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 3/5. Justification: I knew just barely enough to treat my subject adequately within the limited scope I set myself. </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><u>Revision history:</u></b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>UTC=20220320T172025Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo uploaded base version. He then planned to continue producing, in a way not documented here, minor tweaks, over the coming 96 hours, as versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, ... . . </b></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In a time of crisis, we must all do what we are able to do, without harbouring illusions regarding our spiritual and intellectual capabilities. Not everyone is cut out to be a hero. God has granted heroism to some, for instance to Jan Palach (1948-1969) in Soviet-occupied Prague and to Sophie Scholl (1921-1943) under the Reich. Both paid the ultimate price for their convictions - Jan Palach through the morally defective means of public suicide, Sophie Scholl through the time-honoured, morally impeccable, means of martyrdom. Most of us are, in contrast, mediocre. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I would apply this sobering assessment not only to myself, or again to the municipal politicians I dealt with in Canada when helping in vain from 2007 through 2018 (in those years, so many of us strove in vain for the correct conservation of the David Dunlap Observatory woodland), but even to that figure of current public ridicule which is President Vladimir "Special Military Operation" Vladimirovich Putin. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Former KGB sleeper agent Jack Barsky (1949-; born Albrecht Dittrich; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Barsky">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Barsky</a>) was able to observe a young Mr Putin working in Dresden, I believe with Mr Putin then holding the KGB middle-management rank of pod-polkovnik. Jack Barsky has made it clear that in at any rate his own personal assessment Mr Putin is no genius, but on the contrary is a person who rose in the Cold War intelligence community to a respectably modest rank fitting his respectably modest abilities. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">That assessment is to my mind consistent with Mr Putin's long 2021 essay on the imagined unity of Russia and Ukraine. On reading this all the way through a little rapidly, one has much the same impression as one gains from dipping into <i>Mein Kampf</i>. The impression in both cases is that any B.A. student attaining Lower Second-Class Honours, and with enough time on his hands, could, if sufficiently nutty, achieve the same literary result. Mr Boris Johnson, himself no Palach or Scholl, summed up the position deftly, a few days ago, at some podium microphone: that long 2021 essay is "Nostradamus meeting the Russian Wikipedia". </p><p style="text-align: justify;">"Kuda sam Tsar eedyot pyeschkom", people say when going to the lavatory: "where the Tsar himself proceeds on foot". Here, then, is a Tsar who rides no horse when in the loo, a Tsar who uses lavatory paper like the rest of us. </p><p style="text-align: center;">****</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Tsar's long-term spiritual welfare I have discussed already at <a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/</a>, in an Open Letter to him dated 2022-01-24. I arguably ought soon to discuss it again, if briefly. I wrote that 2022-01-24 letter exactly one month before the Tsar's fatal 2022-02-24 <i lang="de" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">Polenfeldzug</i>. Back then, late in January, it still seemed that the Tsar had enough intellectual and executive ability to refrain from an outright invasion of Ukraine. I thought back then that his downfall and personal disaster impended not immediately but in the medium term. My essential 2022-01-24 points to him still hold, even though he has with his own late-February irrationality now arguably undermined his personal security even in the short term. Who, among even the best analytical minds at FSB, SVR, MI6, and the CIA, can now tell what happens with him over the coming twenty-four months, or even over the coming three? </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The concern of this present essay is not the now-perhaps-doomed Tsar but middle-management persons under him, notably in two crucial cohorts, each comprising perhaps just a few hundred highly educated persons - on the one hand his diplomats, in his embassies and consulates around the globe, and on the other hand the people within Russia who administer a particular component in his nation-wide Internet infrastructure, his ensemble of BGP-conversant routers. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">These two classes of mission-critical officer, having been vetted prior to appointment, are unlikely to include many Jan Palachs or Sophie Scholls. Although we may hope on the one hand for diplomats defecting noisily and nobly at the United Nations and on the other hand for BGP-monitoring router administrators silently leaking root passwords to GCHQ and NSA (traditional papermail, I would suggest, is a refreshingly "retro" alternative to that modern classic which is the VPN), we must not set our hopes high. Politics is in all jurisdictions the art of the possible, the art of the second-best. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">So, Dear Reader, suppose you are a diplomat or a BGP-trained router sysadmin, skilled on the one hand in your foreign languages and on the other hand in such router adjuncts as Astra Linux shell-script programming, but lacking the inner strength of a Jan Palach or a Sophie Scholl. What to do? </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Two ideas come to mind. Firstly, you can do your work not as well as before. You are perhaps in a position to plead to your superior, truthfully if vaguely, something regarding your "private emotional difficulties in the current evolving public situation", as you miss the occasional deadline and allow your diplomatic sitrep cables or the police-and-military end of your Russian BGP communications to degrade a bit. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Secondly, you can, without attempting outright sabotage, signal quietly and truthfully that your loyalty to Vladimir "Special Military Operation" Vladimirovitch is now conditional, is now becoming a bit shaky. For juridical safety, that signal might be best conveyed not by words but by your facial expression and tone of voice. Words can be used against you in court if the Tsar somehow manages to stay in power, raised eyebrows and an ironic tone of voice not so much. To your superior, your truthful signal, however exactly you may opt to communicate it, means that you cannot now be relied on to execute silly instructions over the coming weeks. You might execute them, and then again you might not: it will all depend, from hour to hour, on the level of silliness being demanded. When this signal game is played skillfully enough, military planning gets undermined. (For what Kremlin politician can plan in confidence, if he is uncertain whom his Paris and London and Vienna and Berlin attachés might be meeting when venturing from one to another convenient First Class compartment on the train? Or what general or police supremo can plan in confidence, when he can no longer predict what his geographically dispersed lieutenants will do, as the networking among his LANs and WANs slowly degrades?) With the progressive undermining, the current "Special Military Operation" is made progressively more difficult, and lives get saved. </p><p style="text-align: center;">****</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I compose this unavoidably troubling letter as a private Estonia-resident Estonian national lacking significant current contacts at any level of government, beyond the merely municipal, in any country. I do ask that readers try to forward the letter to senior levels within the Kremlin government and the Moscow Patriarchy. I will myself quietly bring it to the attention of the Catholic Church. If anyone feels I have overstepped moral boundaries, straying from a sincerely intended corrective messaging into outright sin, I do ask them to contact me. In the particular case of the Moscow Patriarchy, I would envisage publishing their conceivable theological rebuke, and analyzing it, here on this blog. A lack of communication from the Patriarchy to me this spring is to be construed not as an indication of their political agreement, but nevertheless as an indication that they harbour no significant theological concern with my own chosen political stance. </p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>====END OF BLOG POSTING====</b></p>Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-47701777268813655342022-03-05T01:04:00.012-08:002022-03-07T22:59:12.728-08:00Toomas Karmo: Methods for Accessing Content of BBC-or-Similar from within Russia<p><b style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><u>Quality assessment: </u></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 2/5. Justification: I worked in a public emergency on a task of limited scope, from a position of limited knowledge. </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><u>Revision history:</u></b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b style="font-size: xx-small;">UTC=20220308T065415Z/version 3.0.0Ö Kmo added information on a BBC TikTok presence and on BBC re-broadcasting through participants in the European Broadcasting Union. He raised his quality assessment for this blog posting from 1 to 2. </b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b style="font-size: xx-small;">UTC=20220305T153340Z/version 2.0.0: Kmo added information on BBC shortwave radio English-language broadcasts. </b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b style="font-size: xx-small;">UTC=20220305T085830/version 1.0.0: Kmo uploaded base version, regarding BBC Web content, as simply a bare-bones advisory. </b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></p><h1 style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">0. Background</span></h1><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>Much Western news content is now banned in Russia. </span>The BBC now offers advice, however, on the accessing of its content from within Russia. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><h1 style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">1. Accessing BBC content in a Web browser</span></h1><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On 2022-03-04, the BBC press office gave advice on using a Web browser. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here is their 2022-03-04 advice in English: </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj5zZykWirgA2YbqMY7fpPOl9ZItc-79ESEiND01B45piDqpgCx1p_v-FrrD63zDBv3nevPK2k3bplzHMlMWW_Xd3CBya0xyF2Wk68piAKBVyQ8URSL_-Tv7m0mgBNfew65QcJayWYMQSFpxz4U8ae1J9bXfPc8CTZWHItzAIxr4JJEcLb5dlgOWi-L=s624" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="351" data-original-width="624" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj5zZykWirgA2YbqMY7fpPOl9ZItc-79ESEiND01B45piDqpgCx1p_v-FrrD63zDBv3nevPK2k3bplzHMlMWW_Xd3CBya0xyF2Wk68piAKBVyQ8URSL_-Tv7m0mgBNfew65QcJayWYMQSFpxz4U8ae1J9bXfPc8CTZWHItzAIxr4JJEcLb5dlgOWi-L=s320" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here is their 2022-03-04 advice in Russian: </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjEve4XcRBz8cIpFTsAsnVuF3tHLwvE-ULUb87d0XeNvg75MineeHKGEbn5Ok8atSIzT4jdMpPZxuUrMTw-ivOHUjVJ3uaDrvOAeO08O74R-OLv3XcrKu0-NCacxv0UTZ9eQtRPvPQMFuL3L-ITVbbv4pBJmvNSixv1Q8k-En9YJnSa5GEtyDLcu35E=s624" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="351" data-original-width="624" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjEve4XcRBz8cIpFTsAsnVuF3tHLwvE-ULUb87d0XeNvg75MineeHKGEbn5Ok8atSIzT4jdMpPZxuUrMTw-ivOHUjVJ3uaDrvOAeO08O74R-OLv3XcrKu0-NCacxv0UTZ9eQtRPvPQMFuL3L-ITVbbv4pBJmvNSixv1Q8k-En9YJnSa5GEtyDLcu35E=s320" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here is their 2022-03-04 advice in Ukrainian: </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiVZYQoe_emg9ibJynIRYw56vigcJZ_i2XQsFvyPhAGfrgbCwJRRl6B_H5-sptsm9Vl81PS-4_sc-FJFs6z0NCq-cRLbAjXMMg13UqzMKJffPXhSNiDlLLqSZD-PDQRLlZguJtbTjCr7EEuiLukVchG5QwEwXrVb5-KAvonm-8wZJHb7oiH-miV6Jn-=s624" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="351" data-original-width="624" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiVZYQoe_emg9ibJynIRYw56vigcJZ_i2XQsFvyPhAGfrgbCwJRRl6B_H5-sptsm9Vl81PS-4_sc-FJFs6z0NCq-cRLbAjXMMg13UqzMKJffPXhSNiDlLLqSZD-PDQRLlZguJtbTjCr7EEuiLukVchG5QwEwXrVb5-KAvonm-8wZJHb7oiH-miV6Jn-=s320" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The live-stream written-word reporting at the BBC tries to cover developments in such terse terms that readers do not suffer information overload. In the same Web-page display as it uses for its live stream, the BBC provides point-form summaries for readers who have time only to absorb the essentials. In addition to live-stream reporting, the BBC has longer articles, on Web pages separate from the live feed. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #444444;">On 2022-03-07, the BBC live Web news feed stated that it would now "be increasing access to its reporting by launching TikTok accounts dedicated to videos of the war in Ukraine in both English and Russian."</span></span></p><h1 style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">2. Listening to BBC on Traditional (Non-Internet) Radio</span></h1><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On 2022-03-05, the BBC live Web news feed indicated that shortwave broadcasting, in English, is now available for 4 hours each day, in transmissions which can be received in Ukraine and in parts of Russia. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Arrangements are as follows:</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"></p><ul><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">14:00 UTC to 16:00 UTC: 15.735 MHz (in the 19-metre shortwave broadcast band)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">20:00 UTC to 22:00 UTC: 5.875 MHz (in the 49-metre shortwave broadcast band) </span></li></ul><p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #404040; text-align: left;">On 2022-03-07, the BBC live Web news feed stated that the BBC would now "be making a daily half-hour news bulletin available free-of-charge to other broadcasters who are members of the European Broadcasting Union."</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I supplement the BBC information with a couple of my own remarks. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">UTC, or "Universal Coordinated Time!", lags EET, or Eastern European Standard Time, by 2 hours. UTC lags MST, or Moscow Standard Time, by 3 hours. EET is as at 2022-03-05 the normal civil time of Kyiv. MST is as at 2022-03-05 the de facto normal civil time of Donbas. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The performance of a cheap shortwave receiver can be improved by attaching a long wire (the longer the better) to its telescoping antenna rod, and if possible leading at least a part of this wire outdoors. As a protection against both lightning and certain types of electronic warfare (the "electromagnetic pulse bomb", or EMP), the wire should be disconnected from the antenna rod when not in use. Additionally, a receiver can be protected against EMP by being enclosed in a metal box or wire-mesh cage when not in use. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><b>====END OF BLOGSPOT POSTING====</b></p>Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-64179668399197072982022-02-27T12:44:00.006-08:002022-02-27T22:59:47.696-08:00Toomas Karmo: Open Letter to Platoon Commanders in the Russian Red Army Force Invading Ukraine<p> <b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"> <u>Quality assessment: </u></b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 2/5. Justification: I worked in a public emergency on a task of limited scope, from a position of limited knowledge. </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><u>Revision history:</u></b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>UTC=20220228T955755Z/version 2.1.0: Kmo adjusted transparency-driven disclosure of personal contact particulars, paying closer attention to need for balancing transparency with security. </b></span><b style="background-color: transparent; font-size: x-small;">Kmo then planned to continue producing, in a way not documented here, minor tweaks, over the coming 72 hours, as versions 2.1.1, 2.1.2, ... . . </b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>UTC=20220227T213003Z/version 2.0.0: Kmo took a firmer line, considering participation in the invasion unambiguously immoral. (In version 1.0.0, he had unwisely suggested that in some limited sense it might be moral to adhere to a solemn oath of military loyalty, taken in good faith at some past time. This is "Wehrmacht Honour", to be dismissed in the Ukraine of 2022 as it was dismissed at the Nürnberg trials in 1946.) </b></span><b style="font-size: x-small;"> Kmo then planned to continue producing, in a way not documented here, minor tweaks, over the coming 72 hours, as versions 2.0.1, 2.0.2, ... . . </b></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>UTC=20220227T203610Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo uploaded base version. He then planned to continue producing, in a way not documented here, minor tweaks, over the coming 72 hours, as versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, ... . . </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I write in the interest of civic and military honour, as a private Estonian citizen and as a private Catholic Christian loyal to the Holy See. I assume personal responsibility for what I write, having consulted beforehand with nobody. Having, on the other hand, written my thoughts out, I am ready to take any necessary advice, correction, or rebuke from authorities in my Church and in my government, and additionally from within my circle of friends and colleagues. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #444444; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For the convenience of all parties, and in the interest of transparency, I display my contact particulars at the end of this letter. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #444444;">I respectfully request that sympathetic persons, for instance in Ukraine and Russia, repeatedly translate this letter into good Russian and repeatedly distribute it, both via social media (such as </span><span style="color: #4d5156; text-align: left;">ВКонтакте) and as printed sheets, indicating that their particular translation is not my own, and retaining my own contact particulars, and if choosing to make any change in content (in substance) adding an appropriate entry to the revision log in the document header. In legal terms, this work is intended as a publication under the </span><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/" rel="license" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #464646; outline: 0px; text-align: center;">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a> (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: left;"><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/</a>). </span></p><p style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: left;">****</span></p><p style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: left;">What is an honourable course of action for those Red Army platoon commanders invading Ukraine who now consider their platoon to have been recruited into an unjust cause by Kremlin politicians? Of the various good options which exist for such a hypothetical platoon commander, not all are equally good. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: left;">Some will argue that good in a weak sense is the option of remaining true to one's military oath. On this dark so-to-speak 1939-through-1945 "Wehrmacht honour" conception, one continues to fight with due diligence on the Kremlin side, as one promised when the oath was administered. For my part, however, I respectfully dissent from this assessment, holding with the 1946 Nürnberg tribunal (in which Russian judges participated) that unjust orders cannot be obeyed. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: left;">In my own private view (I repeat my willingness to take rebuke from my government, from my Church, and from my friends and acquaintances), it is necessary to consider the military oath no longer binding. Many will agree with my anti-military assessment at least when pondering the case of such platoon commanders as joined the Ukraine invasion without initially grasping its immorality. Without myself being a soldier, I would conjecture that some aspects of military morality become clear to junior officers only in the field, at the hour when civilian anguish is first encountered. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: left;">And in my own private view military disengagement is still more glaringly necessary for those platoon commanders who, on taking their oath months or years ago, either did not foresee being some day sent to invade the brother nation which is Ukraine or who are commanding men who did not foresee this contingency when they for their part took the oath. Officers are responsible for the moral welfare of their subordinates. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: left;">****</span></p><p style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: left;">How should these disengaging platoon commanders proceed? Here are various good options, some better than others. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: left;">Good, but in a limited way, is the option of quietly undermining the work of one's higher command, in some way that does not directly endanger any other personnel in the Red Army. It would be reckless to commit an act of outright sabotage, such as planting an improvised explosive device in the path of one's advancing comrades. A descent into recklessness can be avoided, however, by executing orders less than perfectly. A lieutenant or captain radios to the platoon, for instance, the order that forty fuel containers are to be made ready for an incoming Red Army convoy. Let the fuel be of proper quality, then, prepared just as the lieutenant or captain expects. Let there simply be not quite enough of it. In place of the required forty containers, let there be just thirty, or just twenty. Or let the containers be just partly filled, with spills allowed to occur at the spigot. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">Still better is a plan of surrender, provided one can secure the free and informed consent of one's men before acting. Suppose the platoon agrees, after some minutes of discussion, that the Russian invasion is a fratricidal injustice, bringing on the one hand suffering to Ukraine, and on the other hand dishonour to the Red Army. Now one is ready, as an officer, to surrender, with the informed cooperation of one's men. Here again two options exist - both of them good, and yet one better than the other. </p><p style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">The less good option is to seek out some opportunity of surrendering to a numerically superior force, by deliberately leading the platoon into contact with some larger Ukrainian unit. </p><p style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">The better option is to seek out some opportunity to surrender to a numerically inferior force, as when some nine-man Russian platoon turns itself over to a two-man Ukrainian patrol. </p><p style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">Surrender to a numerically superior force can take on the morally ambiguous aspect of self-preservation. Surrender to a numerically inferior force, on the other hand, takes on the aspect of a moral declaration. Such a surrender indicates to all observers, through the language of military action, a loyalty to principles and to Russia's true long-term national interest. </p><p style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>[Author contact particulars: Toomas Karmo; Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com; http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/; telephone 372-5864-6540; papermail Observatooriumi Street, Tõravere hamlet, Nõo Rural Municipality, Tartumaa County, Estonia 61602.]</i></p><p style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><b>====END OF BLOGSPOT POSTING====</b></p><p style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: left;"><br /></span></p>Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-58325420253453659612022-02-19T05:02:00.004-08:002022-02-19T05:19:09.692-08:00Toomas Karmo: Open Letter to Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Urging Red Army Refugee Arrangements<p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b> <u>Quality assessment: </u></b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 3/5. Justification: I knew enough to treat my subject adequately within the limited scope I set myself. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><u>Revision history:</u></b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>UTC=20220219T124753Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo uploaded base version. He then planned to continue producing, in a way not documented here, minor tweaks, over the coming 72 hours, as versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, ... . . </b></span></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">I write this open letter to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry as a publication on my server space <a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/</a>. I hope to convey either its text or a notification of it, via private e-mail, over the coming days or weeks to whatever parties may from time to time appear appropriate - at any rate to the Russian Embassy in Tallinn and to some Ukrainian diplomatic authorities. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I write as a concerned private Roman Catholic layman, and as an Estonian national. I lack significant contacts, whether formal or informal, with the government of any country. </p><p style="text-align: center;">****</p><p style="text-align: justify;">As Catholics, we are aware that "our Final Examination will be on the topic of love." We are also aware that love involves following <i>Gaudium et Spes</i> and Fr Pedro Arrupe, S.J., in embracing "the preferential option for the poor". Finally, we recall in this context Pope John Paul II's 1991 admonition that poverty "is not limited to material poverty, but encompasses cultural and spiritual poverty as well." </p><p style="text-align: center;">****</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This winter, Russia's Red Army emerges as a new cohort of the poor. Here we find persons of limited cultural exposure and of correspondingly limited vision. I would presume these individuals are still more crushed than the US Army deserters with whom I used to chat at Catholic Worker in Toronto. At Catholic Worker, a couple of US Army personnel explained to me that in their home towns, far from the centres of American wealth and prestige, adolescents finishing high school had faced a stark, a merely binary, choice. They could work at some low-wage unskilled job, for instance as short-order cooks in a roadside hamburger restaurant. Alternatively (the one alternative), they could join the military. The military offered them their sole realistic path to a dignified adult life, dangling as it did the inviting prospect of a duly funded post-secondary education. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The available choices cannot be much better in Russia. Now we have not only the Dostoyevskian spectacle of an Army of the Disadvantaged - a kind of Army of the Бурлаки - conceivably marching on Kyiv, but the spectacle of an Army facing military and diplomatic adversity. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The adversity may take a while to eventuate. At first, there might be something that can be presented to Russian television audiences, far to the east of Ukraine, as a victory: air superiority quickly seized and tenaciously maintained, some Ukrainian territory gained, perhaps even a Kyiv government overthrown. But in the longer term? Things did not go well for the USSR in post-1981 Poland. Neither did things go well for the USA in post-2003 Iraq. Why should things, at any rate in the longer term, say in the five-year or ten-year term, be expected to go well for this particular Army?</p><p style="text-align: center;">****</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the face of the bleak probabilities, a means of honourable and dignified escape must now be constructed. What is needed is a clear, institutionally defined, path, free of moral ambiguity, through which a Red Army soldier can upon attaining moral clarity leave his unit and find temporary political refuge within the EU. I consequently imagine a political-refugee Non-Governmental Organizaation, "PQR", being created, at the Ukrainian grassroots level, with support from governments in Ukraine, in the EU, and in NATO. Imagine now the path of the Red Army recruit "Sergei Petrovitch", as he realizes that he has been recruited out of his isolated and impoverished community (perhaps many hundreds of kilometers east of Moscow and Sankt Peterburg, where life gets rough) into an unjust cause. Here is how the people at PQR support Sergei Petrovich, as he works to avoid moral complicity:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><ul><li>In the general confusion befogging (to take a hypothetical military example) some contested countryside some tens of kilometres northwest of Kyiv, near the Belarus frontier, Sergei Petrovich detaches himself from his unit. (Perhaps he is in a three-man patrol detail, and his two sympathetic comrades allow the detail to split up "just for half an hour", kinda-sorta knowing what is about to happen with Sergei, and willing to run their own entailed personal risks at debriefing tomorrow morning: we may well assume depression and loose discipline through much of the Red Army, once the initial weeks of euphoria are over.) </li><li>Sergei Petrovich proceeds to some ordinary Ukrainian farmhouse, taking his chances as he knocks at the door. The safety catch on his firearm is clearly and demonstratively engaged. He explains to the frightened people - at first he has to shout this, since they scarcely dare open up - that he has his safety catch on, that he will toss his firearm down with its catch still on, and that he needs the help of PQR in leaving the Red Army. Eventually, people in the farmhouse understand, recalling what they already know of PQR from the media. Having accordingly let him in, they manage to find him a civilian jacket and civilian trousers, both of them a more or less reasonable fit. Helpfully, several weeks ago they did take the precaution of stocking multiple printed-out copies of a map disseminated over the Internet by PQR, detailing the location of their own oblast's network of PQR "Transit Houses". </li><li>PQR now makes his way under cover of night, retaining his military compass and his electric torch, but now minus his uniform and his firearm, to the nearest Transit House. In operational terms, this is no very hard task: PQR has to cover just 30 km on foot, on rather level ground, and the map makes clear how he can proceed across fields and along farm fencing. </li><li>Seven hours later, with Sergei Petrovich in the local Transit House, PQR begins the process of documenting him as a political refugee, temporarily liable to political prosecution and therefore temporarily unable to return to Russia. </li><li>PQR next conveys Sergei Petrovich to the Ukrainian defence forces, some safe distance outside currently contested territory. </li><li>In a courteous but firm debriefing, the Ukrainian forces record Sergei Petrovich's military particulars (rank, serial number, areas of special technical competence, ... ). </li><li>The forces and PQR jointly arrange for Sergei Petrovich's speedy transfer westward, out of Ukraine, to some appropriate reception camp run by PQR and the EU. In this PQR-with-EU camp, Sergei Petrovich receives a detailed security screening from the host-nation authorities, as with Displaced Persons in the aftermath of the 1939-1945 war. With the lengthy security procedures complete, Sergei Petrovich's details are conveyed to the UNHCR database. Additionally, particulars of his family back home in Russia are entered into a database of potentially vulnerable persons, as PQR in the EU liaises with Amnesty International in London. </li><li>Months or years later, once a peace treaty ends the Ukraine conflict, Sergei Petrovich is assisted by his host EU country in returning home to Russia.</li><li>Sergei Petrovich's conscience is now clear. He knows that despite having entered the Red Army without due consideration, he providentially found himself, once in the operational combat field, at a duly considered decision point. He knows that at that instant he did take the morally correct decision, correctly serving Russia's longest-term national interests. </li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><b>==END OF BLOGSPOT POSTING.==</b></div><p></p>Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-54865809731875480482022-01-24T13:39:00.003-08:002022-01-24T23:38:02.159-08:00Toomas Karmo: Eden-1956 Once Again? Or Jaruzelski-1981 Once Again? An Open Letter to President V.V. Putin<p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b> <u>Quality assessment: </u></b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 3/5. Justification: I knew just barely enough to treat my subject adequately within the limited scope I set myself. (I write as a person with exceedingly poor Russian, and with just the usual PBS-and-<i>National-Geographic </i>grasp of mediaeval Russian history, driven by the anxious desire to help.) </b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><u>Revision history:</u></b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>UTC=202201242T212500Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo uploaded base version. He then planned to continue producing, in a way not documented here, minor tweaks, over the coming 12 hours, as versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, ... . . </b></span></p><p><br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Remarks as a Foreword,<br /> to Assist Russian Federation Administrators </h4><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><i>This "Open Letter" to President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (1) is published in the first instance as a 2022 January 24 posting at <a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/</a>, and (2) is on the day following first publication being forwarded by e-mail to the local Russian Embassy address, estonia@mid.ru, with the request that it be both (a) forwarded by Embassy personnel to appropriate Moscow desks and (b) somehow acknowledged. </i></b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><i>Anyone (whether or not in the administration of the Russian Federation) is welcome to post a comment on this same blog, and also to post a full-scale guest essay on this same blog, under the two sets of rules set out some years ago at <a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/search/label/AAAA--blog_intro">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/search/label/AAAA--blog_intro</a> under the two respective headings "Under what conditions may the public make comments-on-essays?" and "Under what conditions may the public post original ('guest') essays (as opposed to mere comments-on-essays) on this blog?" </i></b></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">****</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I am writing as a private individual, without formal or informal connections to any government, and possessing only the usual lay connections within the Catholic Church. I write as an aspiring Catholic lay hermit, outside the diocesan-hermit provisions of Canon 603, and therefore not bound by formal hermit vows. In proceeding as a hermit or hermit-wannabe, I am trying to follow, in a necessarily circumscribed and limited way, in the footsteps of Bl Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916) and - what is particularly relevant for this present piece of writing - Serv. of God Ekaterina Fyodorovna Kolyshckine de Hueck Doherty (Екатерина Фёдоровна де Гук-Дохерти, née Колышкина; 1896-1985). My readers, especially those within the Russian Federation government, might want to note two of my previous blog postings with a Russian theme: </p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><ul><li><a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2017/03/toomas-karmo-open-letter-to-my-fsvsvr.html">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2017/03/toomas-karmo-open-letter-to-my-fsvsvr.html</a></li><li><a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2017/03/toomas-karmo-anne-garrels-russia.html">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2017/03/toomas-karmo-anne-garrels-russia.html</a></li></ul><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">****</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Monsieur le Président Vladimir Vladimirovich, politics has been rightly called the art of the possible, a seeking out of the merely second-best. I must stay mindful of this precept in what I respectfully write today to you and to your Foreign Ministry. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I write with a certain personal sympathy, I might venture to say "with a certain sympathetic pity", even while having in the interests of truth to become at various points in today's letter quite brutally frank. </p><p style="text-align: center;">****</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The following are the background essentials facing both you as an individual and the Russian Federation as the sovereign state presently under your care. For some of these points, a brutal frankness proves specially necessary: </p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><ul><li>The Russian Federation suffers an economic stagnation paralleling the stagnation of the Brezhnev USSR, with its GDP (the vast Russian natural resources, and the large Russian population, notwithstanding) comparable to just the GDP of Italy. </li><li>In particular, the Russian Federation lags in commercially relevant engineering, with few or no significant added-value manufactures on world markets. (Where are the Russian iPads, the Russian Toyotas, even the Russian Ikea modular furniture? They do not exist.) </li><li>Also serious, indeed indicating decay at the core, is Russia's scientific decline. Your young, mobile, doctoral and post-doctoral, talent in mathematics and physics in my belief migrates (do correct me if I err) almost always from Russia to the West, only in rare instances from the West to Russia. </li><li>You are yourself no longer young. More than one version of a story regarding compromised personal health has percolated even to me, as a none-too-assiduous consumer of the ordinary news media, far removed from the affairs even of my tiny Estonia. </li><li>Your age notwithstanding, you seem not to have publicly articulated a conception for the shape of Russian governments following your retirement. In particular, you seem not to have proposed measures ensuring constitutionality, and so blocking a mere boyar-against-boyar power struggle (blocking, that is, a dismal contemporary rerun of the 1598-1613 "Time of Troubles", or of the post-1917 civil war). </li></ul><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">One further background essential requires development at length. When the "Troubles" ended in 1613, it was the Romanovs who emerged on top. Only through a religious obscurantism paralleling the religious obscurantism of early-mediaeval Byzantine palace intriguers could such a process be said to have conferred political legitimacy on them in 1613. As of 1917 and 1918, however, their suffering, to the point of martyrdom, gives the Romanovs a solid claim to some admission into public life. Might not the path ahead for Russia, after your own departure, involve an eventual Dutch-UK-Nordic-style monarchy, in which the now-legitimized Romanovs exercise some limited right "to be consulted, to encourage, and to warn" (in the phrasing of UK constitutional-monarchy analyst Walter Bahehot), as they liaise with the Duma and Russia's successive Prime Ministers, under some strict new code of constitutional law? A cautious and limited embrace of the Romanovs would have a surgical effect, marking on the one hand a repudiation of that sterile utopianism which was Marxism-Leninism, and marking conversely a return to Russia's authentic living traditions. A recourse to the Romanovs might be thought radical: and yet in so ancient and conservative a society as Russia, no merely Western political gimmick could perform the surgery so urgently needed. </p><p style="text-align: center;">****</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is against this background that the spectre of domestic unrest, notably the spectre of unrest consolidating itself around Mr Alexei Anatolievich Navalny, impels you to a dangerous military initiative. I think - though events over the coming hours or days may prove me wrong - that your initiative does not involve anything so insane as the wide-scale physical invasion of Ukraine. My current working hypothesis is, rather, that you seek a new Kiev government in the spirit of the deposed Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych. Under my current hypothesis, you seek to procure this régime change through backdoor processes illegal under the present Ukrainian constitution, in a context of military threat. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Even setting aside questions of public morality, we note not only the expense, but the outright military peril, of such a line of action: once an invasion force is mustered, lower ranks are liable to pressure their commander-in-chief to move his assembled force forward, rather than to lose face in a withdrawal This danger must be prominent in the minds of the well-meaning, potentially friendly, parties in the USA who last week professed their intention to construct a "diplomatic off-ramp" for the protagonists, working to defuse current tensions. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Whatever the nature of your initiative in its present form - perhaps I understand it accurately, perhaps I misunderstand it - it will at any rate be agreed by almost all analysts in almost all Foreign Ministries around the globe that you are now operating in a situation dominated by unknowns, in which the sheer pressure of events may cause you to lose control. More brutally put, it will be almost universally agreed, by friend and challenger alike, in Foreign Ministry upon Foreign Ministry, that you are now gambling, hoping (as a gambler might hope) for the retention of control - that you are now tossing successive volleys of dice onto the dark felt of a gaming table. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">My own guess - perhaps I guess rightly, perhaps I guess wrongly - is that however exactly events play out, as you work with lieutenants of imperfectly tested qualities in a framework of incomplete information, your initiative may culminate in your becoming a still larger figure of public derision than either the Anthony Eden of Britain's 1956 "Suez Crisis" or the Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski of the 1981 "Solidarnosc" crisis. If you are lucky, some success may come in the merely immediate term, in other words over the coming year or two. If you are lucky, you may conceivably succeed in deposing the current Kiev government, and additionally during the next year or two in keeping some kind of lid both on Ukrainian and on Russian dissent, much as Jaruzelski at first did. Anthony Eden's fall from power was swift and terrible. Yours, by contrast, might instead follow a more gradual, that is to say a less British and more Polish, trajectory. But what drama comes after, either for yourself or for your political heirs, once Moscow's casino-table luck runs out? </p><p style="text-align: center;">****</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is in some ways helpful to write, in a broad imitation of your analysis at <a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181">http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181</a> ("On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians"), not just of the Russian Federation but of "The Russias", or (this is much better) of "the Rus Nations". In surveying what a previous Russian administrator - in his helplessness paradoxically a benefactor of humanity - helpfully called "our common European home, from the Atlantic to the Urals", we find not just the Russian Federation, but Belarus. And in that same broad cultural space, we find Ukraine. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I do hedge this remark with the caveat "helpful in some ways". Ukraine has its own distinctive ethnological patrimony, even its own language, and in contradistinction from the Russian Federation is theologically partitioned between a Byzantine interpretation of Christianity and a straightforward canon-law allegiance (under Byzantine liturgical forms) to Rome. But the three "Rus Nations", distinctive Ukraine among them, do mark out a cultural mosaic for which many or all of the other Slavic nations, notably Poland, within our "common European home" are externalities. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">What, now, is the cultural mission, the task or duty, of this trio of large "Rus Nations"? You and I, chronologically almost exact contemporaries, know the answer, perhaps about equally well: you, as a longtime head of government in the largest of the three big "Rus Nations", and I as a close, formerly Estonian-exile, observer of the decadent Anglosphere (with four years at Oxford, and with a history of employment in Australia, in that former British centre which is Singapore, in the USA, and above all in anglophone stretches of Canada). You and I are both painfully, even contemptuously, aware of Western decline and decadence, spearheaded as it has been since 1945 by Anglosaxonia, and evident also in such presently (temporarily?) respectable European-Union jurisdictions as Estonia. Only a terse recitation of illustrative points is necessary to recall for you and me, well informed as we jointly are, the downward communal trajectory:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><ul><li>The eager following not of political opportunists alone, but even of superstitions (as when thousands upon thousands of English speakers stridently insisted that the current pandemic is a "hoax"; although they have given that up now, soon they will have something else, such as a revival of the extraterrestrials-in-our-midst meme; before the "hoax pandemic" talk, there was their strident numerological-superstition insistence that the world would end on 2012 December 12; or again that, media reports to the contrary, pop singer Elvis Presley was alive and well; or again their strident insistence that Adolf Hitler, alive no less than vinyl-recording idol "Elvis the Pelvis", was in the First Gulf War proffering military advice to Mr Saddam Hussein: it is characteristic of this mass mania - an Anglosphere phenomenon with notable resonances also here in Estonia - that it finds some new object every five years or so). </li><li>The illiteracy (as with YouTube street interviewees, speaking English as their native language, who are baffled when asked to "name a country starting with U", or again to state the number of sides in a triangle). </li><li>The spectacle in Canada, the USA, and the UK of thousands upon thousands of homeless sitting with their begging caps and begging bowls on the downtown sidewalks, in some cases outright incoherent - and in perhaps the majority of cases although coherent enough, nevertheless in need of psychiatric support (I have chatted with many, in Toronto) - with the Canada-USA-UK authorities cynically calculating that the homeless "do not vote", that in any case they are in some subtle sense "to blame", that things will be okay for them if they somehow "get jobs". </li></ul><div>I could spell this out further by citing a sporadic English-language Pope-bashing fundamentalism in the Roman Catholic Church (there are, for instance, USA pulpits from which it is asserted that it is a sin to vote Democrat; I have heard layman suggestions along these shameful politicized lines even here, over so-to-speak post-Mass coffee, in Estonian, outside the hearing of our clergy), or again by citing the "Dark Web", or again by citing opioid abuse, or again by citing court news (as with the Jeffrey Epstein and Elizabeth Homes convictions). But I think my point is clear enough by now, needing no elaboration. The West is going down (has, in the opinion of many, been going down pretty steadily since the summer of 1914), and the three big socially and theologically "Rus" nations are consequently among those now called to bear a countercultural witness. </div><div><br /></div><div>Your erudite <a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181">http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181</a> essay would, in my own respectful view, be improved if it were to further develop this theme of an emerging call to countercultural witness. </div><div><br /></div><div>In addition, I respectfully submit that your essay suffers from a mistaken assumption, in part overtly stated, and in part an easy extrapolation from the much that you do state. Your essay mistakenly assumes that the three big "Rus Nations" require leadership with a single dominant centre of authority, as some Muscovy to which regional centres are made subservient. I submit that it is not this monolithic Muscovite model, but a multipolar model, that is truest to the actual lived experience of the the large "Rus" peoples. In the broad sweep of the Rus, from the emergence of their first chroniclers onward, as the "Nations" positioned their emerging self-awareness under the complex - in its cut-throat internal palace-politics traditions unhelpful, and yet in its civil jurisprudence, in its art, and in its theology helpful - influence of Byzantium, the rise of Muscovy is a mere early-Modern development. It is no more remote in our collective past than the early-Modern end of Byzantium itself, when the Tallinn cobblestoned Old Town here in Estonia contained much the same set of fortifications and churches, and even many of the same burgher-merchant houses, as it now does. For these "Nations", a happier, multipolar, political model is available from earlier in the course of Rus self-awareness - from the Byzantium-inspired, early-Christian, post-Vladimir, epoch of Kiev and Novgorod, of Pskov and Tver and Uglich. </div><div><br /></div><div>Your detailed and erudite essay notwithstanding, a centralized leadership is unlikely to now facilitate the emerging cultural mission of the three big "Rus Nations". Such a leadership will instead now undermine the mission, reinforcing in Western minds the stereotype of a Muscovite tyrant, much in the mould of shoe-pounding First Secretary Nikita Sergeevich, from whom the West has nothing positive to learn. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">****</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>Since politics is the art of the possible and the second-best, I must offer you only small suggestions. I proceed from the pessimistic premiss that your gambling-hall initiative, whatever its precise present character, and whatever feats it may accomplish in the next couple of years, as your successive volleys of dice hit the dark casino-table felt (an unconstitutional change of government, perhaps, in Kiev?), longer-term failure impends. Taking, for the sake of my attempted help to you, your eventual misfortune as a given, I try to consider what form of damage control would best serve the overall emerging cultural mission of that collective which is the trio of big "Rus Nations": </div><div><ul><li>As your last public act, when you stage your personal exit from an increasingly disordered situation (in 2024? in 2026? as late, even, as 2030?), you install some Romanov as some minor public Russian functionary. You do this by way of sowing a small, nonprovocative, seed, for possible gradual development by your increasingly beleaguered successors, conceivably in the 2040s or 2050s or 2060s. </li><li>You retire from public life to some appropriate monastery, making a suitably austere transition from politics to penance, reflection, analysis, and scholarship. Here you influence the three-nation Rus evolution more deeply than you could hope to influence it from your increasingly insecure position as a Kremlin administrator. Your penance is a large component in your religious reclusion. - I need not develop that last point at length: it is enough to mention, with the utmost brevity, Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov and Salisbury, and to remark that there is likely to be more. </li><li>Your monastic reclusion involves some degree of engagement with Katya Fyodorovna (the already-mentioned Екатерина Фёдоровна де Гук-Дохерти, née Колышкина), with whatever supplementary help the Holy See may be able to give you as you occasionally seek low-key Roman advice to supplement what good advice you are receiving from your own Byzantium-anchored Church. </li></ul><div>Zagorsk or Valaam might be possibilities for this life of monastic reclusion. But if you were to select instead the early-Modern (1473) Petseri-Pechory monastery, so close to the present Estonian line of <i>de facto</i> state demarcation (and lying just within the Estonian fold of the old 1920 Treaty of Tartu <i>de jure</i> demarcation), then I could visit you twice a month. Such a programme of visits would not involve much trouble or expense on my part. It would be a simple matter of my taking the train from Tõravere to Tartu, then taking a second train from Tartu down to the <i>de facto</i> frontier platform of Koidula. Should the Russian Federation authorities give me the necessary visa for my Estonian passport, it might prove easy enough to walk the few kilometres separating the Koidula platform, on the Estonian side of the demarcation line, to your monastery gates, on the other side. I would imagine conveying occasional useful books to you in my small knapsack, subject to due inspection by your frontier authorities. One such book might be Katya Fyodorovna's English-language bio, <i>They Called Her the Baroness</i> (by L.H. Duquin), which we could discuss together over our numerous glasses of tea. More broadly, I would try, without hearing your confessions or exploring your penitential programme, to give you a bit of help in your new life as an author-analyst. I think I could do this, even given the modest limitations imposed by my modest autism, without either forcing my own opinions onto you or compromising my own private principles. </div></div><p></p><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Begging to remain, </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Monsieur le Président Vladimir Vladimirovich, </div><div style="text-align: justify;">your faithful Estonian correspondent, </div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div><br /></div><div>Toomas Endel Karmo</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h4>Remarks as a Postscript, to Assist Russian Federation Administrators</h4><div><br /></div><div><b><i>The Russian Federation diplomatic authorities will have to consider the correct form of response for such an eccentric communication. The form chosen will be governed by the message which the Federation desires to communicate in reciprocation. If the Federation seeks to communicate a message </i></b><b><i>of deprecation, in other words of dismissal, then it will be appropriate to transmit no acknowledgement at all (and I will then explain on this blog, having waited 48 hours, that no acknowledgement has arrived in my e-mail). If the Federation seeks to communicate a neutral message, to the effect that normal professional courtesies are being observed, than it will be appropriate to use some such form of words as "We thank you for your e-mail of 2022-01-xx, headed xxxx. (signed) xxxx xxxx xxxx" (and I will then report the acknowledgement on this blog). If the Federation seeks to convey some small hint of warmth, then it will be appropriate to use some such form of words as "We thank you for your concern at this difficult time," or again "Dr Toomas Endelyevich, we appreciate your anxiety and concern, while being at this time regretfully unable to discuss your points in detail" (or whatever; and I will then report the acknowledgement on this blog, noting its constructive tone). </i></b></div><div><br /></div></div>Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-34077004958766149332021-02-12T11:58:00.013-08:002021-09-21T01:11:07.404-07:00Toomas Karmo: Prof. C.T. (Tom) Bolton (1943-2021) and the 2007-2018 DDO&P Defence Crisis<div style="text-align: left;"><u style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; text-align: justify;">Quality assessment: </u></div><h2 style="text-align: left;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3'5 is "mediocre pass", 4.5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 3/5. Justification: I knew enough to treat my subject adequately within the limited scope I set myself, but did not know enough to be able to widen my scope beyond my chosen theme of practical civics, as would be required in the case of an ambitious, full-scale, obituary. </span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><u>Revision history:</u></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;"></div><ul style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.4; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;"><li style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0.25em 0px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span">UTC=20210921T080800Z/version 1.2.0: Kmo corrected a factual error in the matter of Councillor Karen Cilevitz, changing the erroneous wording "trial date" to the correct "initial court date". The initial court date of 2021-04-01 was followed by other court dates, and as of </span>UTC=20210921T080800Z Kmo did not know whether Karen's case would be brought to trial. He had fallen into the factual error through ignorance of Ontario criminal administration. </span></li><li style="border: none; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0.25em 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">UTC=20210222T102200Z/version 1.1.0: Kmo corrected "microscopist" to "micrometrist", in the discussion of the two Struves. He reserved the right to continue producing, in a way not documented here, minor tweaks, over the coming 120 hours, as version 1.1.1, 1.1.2, ... . </span></li><li style="border: none; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0.25em 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">UTC=20210212T195850Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo uploaded base version. He then planned to continue producing, in a way not documented here, minor tweaks, over the coming 120 hours, as versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, ... . . </span></li></ul></h2><h2 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h2><h2 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h2><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: justify;">1. Prof. Tom Bolton in Scientific and Civic Service </h2><p style="text-align: justify;">A leading Canadian observational astrophysicist, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Prof. C.T. (Tom) Bolton, born in the USA in 1943, died a few days before 2021 February 5. I belive he died alone, in his home near Ontario's David Dunlap Observatory and Park (DDO&P). When I received the news, on February 7, the coroner had not yet determined a date of death. I imagine that something like February 1 or February 2 or February 3 is close to whatever official finding will in due course get made. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I will leave it to more qualified writers to discuss Prof. Bolton's work, both on high-velocity hot stars (the "OB runaways") and on his identification of the first stellar-mass black hole candidate. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I am not competent to write anything at all on the OB runaway-star work. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Concerning black holes, it suffices here to remark, briefly, that Prof. Bolton put the DDO 1.88-metre telescope to successful use. His spectrogram plates of the ninth-magnitude star HDE 226868 built up part of the case (with another part contributed independently, by Webster and Murdin in the UK) for the hypothesis that the HDE 226868 binary-companion X-ray source, Cyg X-1, is a hot accretion disk girdling (not a mere neutron star, but more radically) a black hole. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">This was the first stellar-mass black hole candidate known to science. When I checked with an appropriate specialist, perhaps around 2018, only around thirty other such subsequent candidates had been identified. Here, then, is one of the five or ten principal observational results in 20th-century astrophysics. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Prof. Bolton's achievement came through hands-on labour and deep thinking. It came despite the modest size (in international terms, from the 1970s onward) of what was at the time, and still is, the largest telescope in Canada. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">While others have written in a pessimistic vein about the problem of light pollution at DDO, the facts are these: <i>(a)</i> The light pollution has been rather steady, rather than suffering a severe rise, since the 1980s, in other words since the ten or fifteen years following Prof. Bolton's spectroscopy. <i>(b)</i> With a liquid-nitrogen-cooled digital camera, as opposed to the chemical-photography plate technology available in the early 1970s to Prof. Bolton, it was routine for us in the DDO of 2008 to take good spectrograms of stars much fainter than the ninth-magnitude HDE 226868. We could push down, with acceptable signal-to-noise ratios, to perhaps magnitude 11 or magnitude 12, or still fainter.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In my earlier days with Prof. Bolton, from 2006 November, our conversations turned on my observing duties for him at the 1.88-metre telescope, and on my related daytime duties of one-dimensional spectrogram extraction for him, via the IRAF software suite, from the digital spectrograph-camera files. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I admired the name he bestowed on the high-grade Linux workstation which housed our endless IRAF work. Some years before I became Prof. Bolton's research assistant, and surely without any notable knowledge of Estonian astronomy, he had designated his imposing machine <span style="font-family: courier;">struve.astro.utoronto.ca</span>. His choice for that "Fully Qualified Domain Name" was a salute to Otto Struve (1897-1963), a USA-based Russian-emigré great-grandson of a Baltic-German authority remembered here in Estonia as a principal luminary of the Tartu Observatory, namely the binary-systems filar micrometrist Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve (1793-1864). The salute was in its turn an indication of what I prized in Prof. Bolton, a dedication to observationally grounded physical insight. Otto Struve (and indeed in an indirect sense even his ancestor, the tsarist binary-systems pioneer Friedrich Georg Wilhlem) is a contributor to the physical analysis that transforms mere astronomy into the duly high, duly severe, discipline of astrophysics. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">For a while stars, and also occasionally mildly scandalous retellings of old dome gossip - I nowadays treasure Prof. Bolton's story of the misfortune which befell stellar astronomer "PQR", of Slavic-outside-European-Union extraction at McDonald Observatory in Texas - were the staples of such conversation as pressure from our respective DDO duties made occasionally possible for us. (It was a good story. Prof. Bolton told it well, with a good Hollywood-Slavic intonation. The temperamental "PQR" was on one particular night specially truculent, and complained in the Texan dark to a night assistant or some such, "I am zee greatest astronomer in zee VÖRLD." At this point he took a step backward in the gloom, to underscore his superiority, and with disastrous consequences fell from quite a height off a platform. As Prof. Bolton told me the story, PQR subsequently judged it appropriate to sue the McDonald administration.)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">With, however, the 2007 September 10 announcement by the University of Toronto that the David Dunlap Observatory and Park (DDO&P) would be sold on the open market, a new side of my boss emerged. Some people have a seemingly innate affinity for marathon running, or again for dance, or again for mathematics, or again for sculpting. As the DDO&P conservation crisis unfolded, from that September Monday morning onward, it became increasingly clear that Prof. Bolton had an affinity for civics. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">This is a thing not so commonly encountered even in the ranks of eminent professional politicians. In all my life of peregrination and incident, I have met only a few people with this virtue. There was, for instance, the so-serious lad, aged perhaps ten, on the train, in the summer of 1974 near Munich. His dad, he told me, was an official of some weight at the United Nations. We discussed public affairs in English, on a rather statistical basis, I think standing uncomfortably in the so-crowded second-class corridor, for perhaps a half hour. It was as though the whole weight of the troubled planet rested already on his shoulders, as it surely rested on the shoulders of his distinguished dad. - What can have become of that boy? He is likely to be at late-career stage now, with grey hair and grandchildren. Is he, like his father before him, with the United Nations? Is he, alternatively, an Ambassador, or perhaps a First Secretary or Second Secretary, in some London or Washington or Paris embassy, representing in ever-so-excellent English whatever significant nation may be his ancestral homeland? Or did his innate talent somehow get smothered in adolescence, as talent can be where mentors and tutors prove unequal to their grave responsibilities? </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Before I can develop Prof. Bolton's civic side in detail, I must digress - supplying, to those of my readers who may desire them, pointers to briefing materials on what might now be termed "the 2007-2018 DDO&P Defence Crisis". </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: justify;">2. Essentials of the 2007-2018 DDO&P Defence Crisis</h2><p style="text-align: justify;">What I here call the "Crisis" seems in fact to have been the weightiest Canadian heritage-conservation case of its time. I offer this assessment with some confidence, having glanced more than once at what other alarming things were on Canadian heritage-conservation desks in those eleven years. There were various individual buildings of note - the subsequently rescued "Normal College" in the Nova Scotian town in which I was born, and where my exiled father was serving in a agronomic civil-service capacity, a historical exhibition hall somewhere out West, remains of diminishing Canadian church life. In the province of Québec, an entire monastery or convent faced possible demolition. A village streetscape, I am fairly sure on some small Lake Ontario island, was in similar danger. Nevertheless, it seemed that nothing at that time could quite equal the case of 77 hectares of urban greenspace, perhaps half of it under forest cover, housing one of Canada's three internationally significant observatories, and constituting an ensemble which under more visionary municipal, provincial, and federal guidance might by 2015 or 2020 or 2025 have hoped to attain inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the end, the Crisis turned out badly, with all buildings but the 1970s-era gatehouse conserved, and yet with research spectroscopy at the 1.88-metre telescope indefinitely suspended. The 1.88-metre was now put to the humblest of uses, fitted with a mere eyepiece, as appropriate for public outreach. Of the 77 hectares, 32 were ceded to property developer "Corsica", in 2015 renamed "DG Group". The latter name surely signifies a flagship for the commercially prominent De Gasperis family, whose collaborators on DDO&P subdivision development included the equally prominent Muzzo family. (It should perhaps be noted here, in the interest of moral clarity and to prevent speculation by the excitable, that the Marc Muzzo who was a director of Corsica during the Crisis is not the much-discussed convict Marco Muzzo, granted full parole on 2021 February 9, but his paternal uncle. I have no knowledge of any criminal allegations against the senior Muzzo. - I did make a feeble effort at investigating the De Gasperis family, mindful of such things as the local Mafia, reputedly anchored not in Sicily but in the 'Ndrangheta grouping of Calabria. My one semi-inside source, in a short chat, led me to think that circumstances do not point in anything like an 'Ndrangheta direction, or in any other criminal direction, and indeed point rather in the direction of moral, duly Catholic, probity.) Those wishing to see what the Corsica destruction of forest looked like can view footage, taken by some drone operator not known to me, at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQuHx-7QAKw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQuHx-7QAKw</a> (YouTube upload of 2015 May 13, by YouTube user "Beygin Media", under the title "Fallen trees - Richmond Hill aerial of Dunlap Observatory Hill home development"). Those seeking an impression of the subdivision that has replaced the forest might visit <a href="https://myobservatoryhill.ca/">https://myobservatoryhill.ca/</a> or <a href="http://www.aspenridgehomes.com/new-homes/Richmond-Hill/observatory-hill">http://www.aspenridgehomes.com/new-homes/Richmond-Hill/observatory-hill</a>. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The temporal demarcation of the Crisis is easy. It started, as already noted, on the morning of the Monday which was 2007 September 10. That was the morning a press release from the University of Toronto, announcing an intention to sell, landed in the e-mail inboxes of DDO workers. The three Dunlap grandchildren had evidently at last caved in, the language of Jessie Donalda Dunlap's 1932 Deed of Indenture, barring sale of the so-generously donated facility, notwithstanding. And I suspect none will dispute my dating of the Crisis end, as the afternoon of the Saturday which was 2018 June 9. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">On that particular Saturday, previous provisional arrangements for public education or "public outreach" at DDO, under the auspices of the pro-am astronomy-education specialists of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC; <a href="http://www.rasc.ca/">http://www.rasc.ca/</a>) were formally replaced by a programme of public outreach under proper municipal auspices, involving both RASC and the DDO Defenders (DDOD; <a href="http://ddod.ca/">http://ddod.ca/</a>). The Mayor spoke, other municipal dignitaries, as I think I recall, spoke; I presume DDOD spoke well; I vividly recall RASC speaking, with a fine command of facts, of the history of DDO in Canadian astrophysics; the citizen-engineering YLab group mounted instructive displays, and offered a friendly welcome, in the DDO basement laboratory area; and people in the big crowd shook hands in a spirit of sincerity. My impressions of that Saturday, with an analysis of its positive conservationist significance, are available at <a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-ddo-conflict-2007-09-10-to-2018-06.html">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-ddo-conflict-2007-09-10-to-2018-06.html</a>. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Further materials on the 2007-2018 Crisis are available by clicking on the right-margin "DDO&P conservation case" hyperlink at <a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/</a>. Many of the <span style="font-family: courier;">blogspot</span> postings under that link, reflecting detailed week-to-week work of Mayor and Council, will be of interest primarily to specialists in municipal affairs. At least two, however, might be useful to a wider audience: </p><div><ul><li><a href="https://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2016/04/?m=0">https://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2016/04/?m=0</a> ("Essay on Sorrow - Its Anatomy and Its Remedies", from 2016 April 26)</li><li><a href="https://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2016/05/islands-in-time-of-civilizational.html?m=0">https://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2016/05/islands-in-time-of-civilizational.html?m=0</a> ("Part C" of a multi-part "Islands in a Time of Civilizational Decline" essay, from 2016 May 16)</li></ul></div><p style="text-align: justify;">Not under that hyperlink, but also relevant, is the following:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><ul><li><a href="https://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2016/05/reupload-part-d-islands-in-time-of_23.html?m=0">https://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2016/05/reupload-part-d-islands-in-time-of_23.html?m=0</a> ("Part D" of the multi-part essay, from 2016 May 23 ; this sombre effort describes an all-too-possible future, looming if civic leaders, overwhelmed by Ontario's growing social, economic, and environmental challenges, fail to plan the long-term development of DDO) </li></ul><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">For full clarity, and to forestall adverse speculations within some of my readership, it is advisable to conclude this briefing with bare-bones points about DDOD: </p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><ul><li>DDOD, founded late in 2007, was taken over, <i>de facto</i> if not at first <i>de jure</i>, by political aspirant Ms Karen Cilevitz in the spring of 2008.</li><li>Ms Cilevitz and DDOD played a fully constructive, in other words a fully conservation-supportive, conservationist role until at least 2010, as detailed at <a href="http://karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/20140218T035440Z____blogpost/NNNN____20140218T035440Z____blogpost__main.html">http://karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/20140218T035440Z____blogpost/NNNN____20140218T035440Z____blogpost__main.html</a>. </li><li>Ms Cilevitz had during this period the fully appropriate approval and support not only of me as an administratively and scientifically junior figure but (what is significant, and moreover speaks to her good side) of Prof. Bolton. Additionally, she had a constructive relationship with the principal conservationists in the Crisis, Prof. Bolton's staunch friends (and equally my staunch friends) the Richmond Hill Naturalists (<a href="https://www.rhnaturalists.ca/">https://www.rhnaturalists.ca/</a>). </li><li>The key 2011 DDOD decision to support subdivision development on 32 of the 77 hectares, thereby undercutting (perhaps fatally, perhaps not fatally) the potential federal-government DDO&P World Heritage List case, is to be laid more at the door of Ms Cilevitz than of other, still-active, DDOD personalities, at that time administratively subordinate to her within DDOD.</li><li>The key movers in this 2011 disaster were in any case not DDOD but the developer and the municipality, as the <i>de facto</i> principal parties in closed-door negotiations at the then still-functioning Ontario Municipal Board. DDOD participated in the trap which was closed-doors negotiation through Ms Cilevitz's error in judgement, and had only a minor influence on the outcome of the protacted parleys - I suspect not much beyond the rescuing, and the relocation within the DDO&P remnant, of the little 1930s DDO "Pump House". </li><li>The current Karen Cilevitz criminal case, frightening though it may prove today, as her initial court date of 2021 April 1 approaches, has to the best of my limited knowledge no connection with the DDO&P conservation file. As we monitor her evolving case, we do well to remind ourselves that her two charges notwithstanding (fraud over 5000 CAD, breach of trust by public officer), everyone is in law innocent unless and until the court issues a finding of guilt. I also herewith reiterate my various calls over the years, at <span style="font-family: courier;">blogspot</span> and elsewhere, for a reconciliation between Karen and myself, even while herewith refraining from comment on the terms of her and my 2014 out-of-court settlement. (It was not I who sued her, but she who sued me.) </li></ul><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: justify;">3. Prof. Bolton in the 2007-2018 DDO&P Defence Crisis</h2><p style="text-align: justify;">Part of what comes to mind in the specific DDO&P civic context of Prof. Bolton is, inevitably, suffering. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">I recall his ejection, in 2008 July, from the Administration Building of the distinguished facility to which he had in a broad range of scientific and administrative capacities devoted much of his distinguished career: he was in tears, and if I recall accurately sitting, like the Observatory outcast he had become, by some cardboard boxes of items from his office. And yet I had not previously found him inclined to displays of lachrymose emotion. I recall, as a further cruel twist of this knife - eminently useful to us on the conservationist side, in our coldly militant, and fully necessary, ruthlessness, but nevertheless cruel - the to-us-unexpected <i>National Post</i> photography of Prof. Bolton at the doorstep. It was in these loud terms that our communal unhappiness got communicated not to the Greater Toronto Area alone, but to pretty much every Canadian newsstand. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">From the same troubled month, quite likely from the same surreal day, I recall Prof. Bolton listening attentively near the Administration Building doorstep when I vented civic emotion in operatic mode, opening the dome catwalk door to the daytime sky and delivering appropriate commentary from that vast hemispherical reverberation chamber. I had for some months steeled myself for the worst by secreting in the telescope control room, and on suitable dome occasions practicing, the <i>Dies irae</i>. It was therefore (as I also recall in the "Islands in a Time of Civilizational Decline" essay, Part C, as cited above) easy enough for me to use the reverberation to amplify my already-strong tenor, so that the grieving scientist could hear also, even stationed, as he was, some tens of metres away. <i>Dies irae! Dies illa! Solvet s</i><i>aec'lum in favilla ...</i> ("Day of anger, that Day! It will dissolve the world into ash," and so on and so on, for nineteen pitiless stanzas which outdo even the <i>Finlandia </i>hymn's powerful "Oi Suomi, katso, sinun päivas' koittaa"). </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Recall offers also, however, happier moments from Prof. Bolton's civic engagement. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">There were Prof. Bolton's contributions as a key witness, at the hearings of the Conservation Review Board (CRB) in 2009 (where we obtained a broadly favourable verdict) and at the Ontario Municipal Board in 2012 (where our verdict was astonishingly adverse). He spoke clearly, without superfluities, to the point, evidently unshaken by the efforts of the developer's counsel. His serenity under fire must have been due chiefly to the innate civic affinity which is the principal theme of this present obituary notice. Surely also helpful at CRB was the sage advice from someone on our side, from within the ranks of the consistently conservationist Richmond Hill Naturalists. Someone (not me) from that grouping had said to him, wisely, "Tom, just go there and enjoy yourself." And so he in a way did, even while under the dreaded "Cross", when the opposing advocate can throw any subtle curve-ball question, and within tribunal rules even any unintentionally or intentionally upsetting question, at you. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Further, many hundreds will recall with gratitude Prof. Bolton's braving winter weather to speak, with a troubling cold and well scarved, to the podium microphone in our big 2008 protest meeting on the grounds of the Ontario Legislative Assembly, in downtown Toronto, across the street from the main University campus. This was the day on which we delivered a conservationist petition with several thousand signatures, in its original to the Legislative Assembly via our Member of Legislative Assembly, and in photocopy to "Vice-President, Business Affairs" Catherine Riggall at the University. The conservationists do not seem to have preserved a YouTube record of those particular podium remarks. Something of their flavour, however, can be inferred from a surviving YouTube record of other podium work, in which Prof. Bolton, at the steps of the DDO Administration Building, addresses a crowd of perhaps fifty or one hundred or two hundred (perhaps not on that occasion, as I now think, significantly over one hundred). He can be seen speaking with passion in check, as required of the results-oriented civic activist, and yet arguing (as likewise required) without compromise, all his pertinent points duly marshalled, with little or no padding, at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7acKj-DB2Ak">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7acKj-DB2Ak</a>. (This it the YouTube upload of 2008 February 10, by former DDO Telescope Operator Jim Thomson, under YouTube username "jrthomson1", under the title "David Dunlap Observatory sale protest".)</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And I recall the hope which he infused into the immediate DDO family in the initial days of the Crisis. A meeting was hastily convened in his Administration Building office. Perhaps half a dozen of us were present. The atmosphere was electrifying, perhaps more than in any other small meeting I have attended. It was clear that we would fight with all the peaceful and legal means at our disposal; there was no self-pity, no grandstanding, and as I now recall it not even any discernible pessimism. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Above all, there is a thing from Prof. Bolton which antedated the 2007-2018 DDO&P Defence Crisis by a couple of decades, and which - as I will shortly explain - serves now as his best, as his most concretely operational, civic contribution. One might now term it his most fitting civic memorial. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: justify;">4. By-law 63-95 as a Bolton DDO&P Defence Legacy</h2><p style="text-align: justify;">Various things will have to be done if the 45-hectare DDO&P remnant, and DDO within it, are to be adequately protected over the coming years. Some of them are to an encouraging extent now being done. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The municipality, having been complicit in greenspace destruction, is now redeeming itself with a duly heavy investment in restoration of the DDO domes and masonry (to, it seems, correct heritage-conservation standards). </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Although there is an ever-present danger of DDO&P degenerating into an astronomically themed Disney World, DDOD under its current executive is duly aware of the need to start up a programme of scientific research, and has already made some steps in this so-necessary direction of "citizen science". I like to think that this DDOD initiative will help pave the way for eventual parallel efforts by DDOD's public-outreach co-worker, RASC. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Additionally, we may hope that, as the passions of the 2007-through-2018 period cool, it will be increasingly evident both to Ottawa and to the provincial government that an observatory as major as DDO must be put to substantive use in university teaching, notably in teaching at the graduate-school level (where students are standardly offered a practical apprenticeship in publication-quality research). </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Here in Estonia, our principal national facility, the dark-sky campus of Tartu Observatory, has since 2018 been run not as the old Soviet-occupation "autonomous Institute", but as a unit administratively within Tartu University. (Tõravere operates a 1.5-metre spectroscopy telescope, a half-metre manually controlled photometry telescope, and a smaller roboticized photometry telescope.) The upshot of this new arrangement is that Tartu University, as an institution which in the global rankings figures modestly enough, coming in a bit below Nova Scotia's internationally respected Dalhousie University, is nevertheless able to offer its students a practical research-apprenticeship experience superior to what is currently on local offer at the three graduate-level astronomy programmes in the Greater Toronto Area (the programmes, namely, at McMaster University in Hamilton, York University at the very edge of the City of Toronto, and the University of Toronto). Happy though such a situation may be for Estonia, it puts Canada, as a notably wealthy and powerful nation, into an unfavourable light. As a student in Tartu, you can be exposed to professional spectroscopy, with 1.5 metres of aperture. As an M.Sc. or Ph.D. student in one or another of the three Greater Toronto Area programmes, by contrast, you must either travel outside Ontario or make do with a downtown scope, in a small (rooftop-class) dome. There is just a metre of aperture at York University, in the context of a recent laudable heavy investment, and less than that at McMaster and the University of Toronto. If I recall accurately, the University of Toronto pair of downtown rooftope-dome scopes offer apertures well below even 0.4 metres. An instrument with an aperture of 0.5 metres, in other words one-third of the aperture at Tõravere, will harvest from a given target in each second one-ninth the number of photons which Tõravere harvests. I make these points in sorrow, not as an indulgence in Estonian boasting, but as a call to Canadian action. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As the 2007-2018 passions cool, Canada must, then, work toward an arrangement in which the 45-hectare DDO&P remnant and the DDO buildings continue under their present municipal ownership, and in which the present correctly conceived DDOD-and-RASC public outreach continues, but in which research-grade spectroscopy gets revived, under the operational and budgetary support of perhaps two, perhaps all three, of the pertinent local graduate-school programmes. We may hope that RASC and DDOD can assist in the necessary discussions. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Prof. Bolton has left a tool for facilitating this research-apprenticeship task, in the form of light-pollution municipal by-law 63-95. Details are offered by DDOD by way of a hyperlink, within the Bolton obituary notice at <a href="http://ddod.ca/">http://ddod.ca/</a>, to the municipal document <a href="https://www.richmondhill.ca/en/shared-content/resources/documents/924-1050.pdf">https://www.richmondhill.ca/en/shared-content/resources/documents/924-1050.pdf</a>. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Although it was his home municipality of Richmond Hill that enacted 63-95, it was Prof. Bolton himself, with few or no precedents anywhere in the international ensemble of municipalities to guide him, who did the scientific thinking and the civic explaining. Let by-law 63-95, then, or some appropriate updating of it, continue to underpin the integrity of DDO, as little by little within the DDO&P remnant the DDO scientific mission revives. </p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-49740606941617859702020-01-06T09:58:00.002-08:002020-01-10T13:41:15.362-08:00Toomas Karmo: USA Vabariigi Rahukoraal / Peace Hymn of the USA Republic <h2 style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; position: relative;">
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Taustakirjeldus - <i>Background</i></h2>
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Ma ei kirjutanud avalikult, kui Donald Trump sai 2016.a. USA presidendiks antud häälte vähemusega (H.Clinton 65,853,514, D.Trump <span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">62,984,828</span>). Ma ei kirjutanud avalikult, kui ta 2019.a. pillus oma Kurdist liitlased huntidele, ehkki ma sain juba tollal aru, et siin peitub võimalik õppetund Eesti Vabriigile, kui USA liitlasriik. Ma ei kirjutanud avalikult, kui ma hakkasin mõistma, et ta oli saanud kogusummas, paari aastakümne jooksul, Deutsche Banki laene koguulatuses umbkaudselt 2,5 miljardit USD, ja et laenutehingud ei olnud alati arusaadavad tavalise ärimudeli järgi (mille kohaselt pank ei annaks laenu omaenda pankrotti väljakuulutanud isikule, saati isikule, kes oli ise osutunud hagijaks laenuandva panga vastu). Ma isegi siis ei kirjutanud avalikult, kuii lugesin 2020.a. ajakirjanduses püstitatud hüpoteesi, et paradoksaalsete laenude taga seisis mõni teine, garanteeriv, pank, ja ühtlasi leidsin ajakirjanduse vihjed Deutsche Banki panganduslikkude sidemetele Venemaaga. Ka ei kirjutanud ma avalikult, kui Donald Trumpi süüdistati rahvusvahelise õiguse rikkumises, olles käima pannud eduka atentaadi, kell UTC=20200102T2200Z, Iraani "Number Kahe", kindral Qasem Soleimani vastu. <b><i>- I did not write publicly when in 2016 Donald Trump became the USA president with a minority of the popular vote (H.Clinton 65,853,514, D.Trump 62,984,828). I did not write publicly when in 2019 he flung his Kurdish allies to the wolves, even though I understood already at that time the possible lesson his action bore for the Republic of Estonia, as a USA ally state. I did not write publicly when I began to understand that he had obtained, over a couple of decades, Deutsche Bank loans totalling around 2.5 billion USD, and that that loan transactions were not always comprehensible in terms of conventional business models (under which a bank would not advance loans to a person who has declared bankruptcy, let alone to a person who has sued the loan-granting bank). I did not write publicly even when I read the hypothesis offered in 2020 media, under which behind the paradoxical loans there was some different, guarantor, bank, and not even when I read journalistic references to Deutsche Bank ties with Russian banking. Again, I did not write publicly when Donald Trump was accused of breaching international law, having launched a successful assassination, at UTC=20200102T2200Z, of Iran's "Number Two", General Qasem Soleimani. </i></b></div>
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Täna õhtu aga minu kannatus lõppes. Pimedas bussis sõites Tartust Tõraverre, ja uudisi lugedes nutitelefonil, sain järgmist teada: Donald Trump on öeldnud, et kui Iraan tasub kindral Soleimani surma mõne omapoolse sõjalise sammuga, siis USA võimaliukult purustab Iraani kultuuripärandit (vt <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jan/06/trump-threat-destruction-iran-heritage-war-crime">https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jan/06/trump-threat-destruction-iran-heritage-war-crime</a>). Seega, kus USA president nüüd ähvardab selge sõjaroima toimepanekuga, on vaikimine võimatu. <b><i>- This evening my patience ran out. Sitting in a darkened bus from Tartu to Tõravere, and reading the news on my smartphone, I learned the following: Donald Trump has said that if Iran avenges the death of Soleimani with some act-of-war of its own, then the USA may undertake retaliatory destruction of Iranian cultural heritage (cf </i></b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jan/06/trump-threat-destruction-iran-heritage-war-crime">https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jan/06/trump-threat-destruction-iran-heritage-war-crime</a>)<b><i>. With this fresh development, where the American President has threatened the commission of a clear war crime, it is impossible to stay silent. </i></b></div>
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Kui USA viis oma väed Iraqi 2003.a., kirjutasin ma "USA Vabariigi Rahukoraali", minu serveri ruumil <a href="http://www.metascientia.com/">http://www.metascientia.com</a>. Keegi hea inimene leidis minu pala kiiresti Internetist kätte ja lasi seda vabaõhu jumalateenistusel laulda, Massachusettsis. Koor või kogudus oli liigutatud, kui õhtku tõusis nende helinate saatel kotkas, kadudes silmapiirilt üle kõrvalasuva tiigipinna, nagu mingisuguses isamaalikus filmikaadris. <b><i>- When the USA took its forces into Iraq in 2003, I composed a "Peace Hymn of the Republic" in my server space <a href="http://www.metascientia.com/">http://www.metascientia.com</a>. Some kindly person found my work quickly on the Internet and caused it to be sung in an open-air service, in Massachusetts. The choir or congregation was touched when to the accompaniment of their performance an eagle took flight, disappearing from view over the surface of an adjacent pond, as though in some patriotic ciné clip. </i></b></div>
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Ma sooviksin, et eestlased peaksid meeles, kuidas need "USA Vabariigi Rahukoraali" mõtted on leidnud varemaltki kajastust Massachusettsis. Teisisõnu, ma sooviksin, et eestlased ei kipuks praegu kogu USA mõttelaadi ja eetikat hindama Donald Trumpi alusel. <b><i>- I would desire Estonians to be mindful of the way in which these "Peace Hymn of the Republic" notions have in the past been received in Massachusetts. I would, in other words, hope that Estonians will not now be appraising the overall American mentality and morality on the basis of Donald Trump.</i></b> </div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ma ka juhtiksin eestlaste tähelepanu asjaolule, et natuke aega pärast oma edukat Suleimani atentaati Pres.Trump võttis tagasi oma ähvardust rünnata Iraani kultuurobjekte, nüüd nentides, et kui kultuuripärandirünnak oleks rahvuvahelises jurisprudentsis seadustevastane, siis ta seda ette ei võtaks. Samas värskes kõnes nentis üldiselt, et temale isilikult on seadustest kinnipidamine meeelpärane. Seegi kõne peaks leevendama eestlaste praegust võimalikku hukkumõistmist, ehkki ta jätab teatud mulje, et tegemist on ebastabiilise juhiga. (Värkset kõnet saab kontrollida URL-il <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFSmnLmnTUs">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFSmnLmnTUs</a> : see on tarbija "Evening Standard"-i ülesmaadimine, kalendristembil 2020-01-08, pikkusega 00:44. Sisulisetl sama materjal on kätteleitav mujalgi YouTube'is, nagu selgub kui annakse YouTube'i otsingumootorile mingisugune fraas nagu <b><u>Trump cultural sites retraction</u></b>, ja uurida tulemusi piisavalt terava pilguga.) <b><i> - I would additionally direct the attention of Estonians to the fact that shortly after his successful Suleimani assassination, Pres. Trump retracted his threat to attack Iranian cultural sites, now asserting that if such an attack were to be contrary to (international) law, he would not undertake it. In the same fresh speech he asserted in general terms that himself is fond of complying with the law. This speech should moderate the possible current condemnation by Estonians - even though, admittedly, it leaves an impression of instability in a leader. (The fresh speech can be checked at the URL </i></b><b><i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFSmnLmnTUs">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFSmnLmnTUs</a> :<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> <span style="font-family: inherit;">this is the upload of user "Evening Standard", under datestamp 2020-01-08, to a length of 00:44. The same content is retrievable also from elsewhere in YouTube, as becomes apparent when one first gives the YouTube search engine some such search phrase as <u>Trump cultural sites retraction</u> and then inspects the retrieved links with close attention.) </span></span></i></b></span></div>
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Siinjuures pakuksin uuesti oma 2003.a. tööd, ühes oma tolleaegse ingliskeelse kommentariga, ühe vajaliku pisimuudatusega laulusõnades, ja ühtlasi kommentaari eestindamisega. <b><i>- I would herewith offer my 2003 work once again, with my English-language commentary from that year, although with one small change in the lyrics, and additionally with an Estonian translation of my commentary. </i></b></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Varem, 2003.a. variant, ilmus ka Kanada luuleajakirjads <i>Poemata</i>, mille väljaandaks oli Canadian Poetry Association. <b><i>- The previous, 2003, version appeared also in the Canadian poetry journal </i><u>Poemata</u><i>, published by the Canadian Poetry Association. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Nendele, kas tahavad kuulda esitust praegusel hetkel tavaliste sõnadega, võiksid valida St Paul'si Londoni toomikiriku leinateenistuse esitamist, 2001-09-14, nagu pakutud URL-il </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmpo0csiIMs">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmpo0csiIMs</a> (YouTube'i üleslaadimine kellegi "julius 923" poolt, kalendristembiga 2009-09-13, kogupikkuses 5:35, koguduse ühislaul algab umbes hetkel 01:30).<b><i> - Those wishing to hear a performance with the currently customary lyrics could select the 2001-09-14 memorial service from St Paul's Cathedral in London, as offered at YouTube under the URL <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmpo0csiIMs">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmpo0csiIMs</a> (YouTube upload from a "julius923", under calendar stamp 2009-09-13, to a total duration of 5:35; the congregation begins singing at around 01.30). </i></b></div>
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Eelnev Kommentaar ja Koraalisõnad - Preliminary Commentary and Hymn Lyrics </h2>
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<pre style="color: black;">((REVISION_HISTORY ORDER="LATEST_UPPERMOST"))</pre>
<pre style="color: black;">* 20190106T183600Z-version 0001.3000 </pre>
<pre style="color: black;"> __changed "raping" to the more appropriate (because more</pre>
<pre style="color: black;"> explicitly environmentalist, and also less militant) "fouling"
* 20190106T164500Z/version 0001.2000</pre>
<pre style="color: black;"> __changed "now we fear the dark of war" to "now we've loosed</pre>
<pre style="color: black;"> the dogs of war" (cf Shakespeare, Julius Caesar Act III scene 1</pre>
<pre style="color: black;"> line 273, "Cry Havoc! and let slip the dogs of war"</pre>
<pre style="color: black;"> __added Estonian translation of 2003 commentary </pre>
<pre style="color: black;"> __uploaded not to http://www.metascientia.com</pre>
<pre style="color: black;"> but to my more Web-visible server space http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com </pre>
<pre style="color: black;">* 20030217T192953Z/version 0001.1001</pre>
<pre style="color: black;"> __supplemented background note
in light of {roy.macgregor} Battle Hymn remarks
in Toronto _Globe and Mail_ 2003-02-17 page A2
* 20030217T012912Z/version 0001.1000
__corrected inappropriate triumphalist nuance in "city on a hilltop"
__made other small changes
* 20030216T055907Z/version 0001.0000
((/REVISION_HISTORY))
((BACKGROUND_NOTE))
<b><i>This poem was written at a time of public spiritual emergency, on 15
and 16 February 2003, when Washington seemed ready to launch an unjust
war.</i></b> - See luule sai kirjutatud avalikul vaimulikul häirehetkel, 15. ja</pre>
<pre style="color: black;">16. veebruaril 2003, kui tundus, et Washington oli valmis ebaõiglase sõja</pre>
<pre style="color: black;">lansseerimiseks. </pre>
<pre style="color: black;"></pre>
<pre style="color: black;"><b><i>Was it presumptuous of me, as a citizen of Estonia and Canada, to
rewrite the Battle Hymn of the Republic? No. A line of thinkers going
back to John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts, has correctly
proclaimed America a "city on a hill", a beacon to nations. America is
a political project, an intellectual and moral project,
in which we all - regardless of our formal citizenship -
rightly participate, and for whose integrity we all now rightly fear.</i></b></pre>
<pre style="color: black;">- Kas oli minu poolt pretensioonikas, kui Eesti ja Kanada kodanik, </pre>
<pre style="color: black;">USA Vabariigi Lahingukoraali ümber kirjutada? Ei. Jada mõtlejaid, </pre>
<pre style="color: black;">mis ulatub tagasi kuni John Winthropini, kui esimene Massachusettsi </pre>
<pre style="color: black;">kuberner, on piisava põhjendusega hüüdnud USA-d "linnaks mäetipul", signaalileegiks </pre>
<pre style="color: black;">maailma rahvastele. Ameerika on poliitiline ettevõte, mõisteline ja eetiline</pre>
<pre style="color: black;">ettevõte, milles me kõik - hoolimata meie formaalsest kodadkondsusest - </pre>
<pre style="color: black;">täieõiguslikult osaleme, ja mille auvääärikuse üle me nüüd kõik </pre>
<pre style="color: black;">täieõiguslikult muretseme. </pre>
<pre style="color: black;"></pre>
<pre style="color: black;"><b><i>When Julia Ward Howe published her Battle Hymn of the Republic in
February, 1862, she was herself fitting new words to an existing
marching song, "John Brown's Body". What she did, and what I am
trying to do here, others may well do, again and and again, as
circumstances change.</i></b> - Kui Julia Ward Howe andis välja oma Vabariigi </pre>
<pre style="color: black;">Lahingukoraali 1862.a. veebruaris, oli ta ise uusi sõnu koostamas</pre>
<pre style="color: black;">olemasolevale marssilaulule, "John Brown's Body". See, mida tegi tema,</pre>
<pre style="color: black;">ja mida ma ise katsun siin ära teha, teised võimaliult omalt poolt</pre>
<pre style="color: black;">edaspidigi teevad, kord ja veelkord, tuleviku muutuvates oludes.
<b><i>Howe, appalled by the violence of Civil War troops, devoted
her later life to peace. What we now know as Mother's Day might
be considered a feeble echo of her 1872 mother's-day-of-peace
initiative.</i></b> - Howe, masendatud Ameerika kodusõja </pre>
<pre style="color: black;">lahinguliste jõhkrusest, pühendas oma hilisema elu rahuliikumisele. </pre>
<pre style="color: black;">Seda, mida me praegu tunneme Emadepäevana, võiks pidada nõdraks</pre>
<pre style="color: black;">kajastuseks tema 1872.a. emade-rahupäeva algatusest. </pre>
<pre style="color: black;"></pre>
<pre style="color: black;"><b><i>My hope is that my words will be sung occasionally at peace rallies as
we urge the present Washington officeholders to return to the liberal
ideals of America's founders.</i></b> - Minu lootuseks on, et mu sõnu lauldakse</pre>
<pre style="color: black;">tulevikus, vahetevahel, rahuliikumise meeleavaldustel, kui me manitseme</pre>
<pre style="color: black;">praeguseid Washingtoni ametikandjaid tagasi tulla Ameerika asutajate</pre>
<pre style="color: black;">liberaalsetele aadetele.
Toomas Karmo
http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com (& http://wwww.metascientia.com)
((/BACKGROUND_NOTE))
((TERMS-OF-USE_NOTE))
This document is to be considered freely reproducible in all media,
and freely usable for any noncommercial purpose, in the spirit of the
GNU Free Documentation License available at
((http://www.gnu.org/)). In reproducing the poem contained herein, it
suffices to append the following phrase:
Freely usable in the spirit
of the GNU Documentation License.
Version control information
and background notes are archived
on the Web pages of the author, Toomas Karmo,
at ((http://www.metascientia.com))</pre>
<pre style="color: black;"> & ((https://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com))
((/TERMS-OF-USE_NOTE))
((TITLE))
Peace Hymn of the Republic
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((MAIN_TEXT))
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:/
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;/
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:/
His truth is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!/
Glory, glory, hallelujah!/
Glory, glory, hallelujah;/
His truth is marching on.
We lived in ease and splendor and disdained the huddled poor,/
Fouling soils and seas and foreign skies, in arms and gold secure:/
Now we've lost our proud twin towers, now we've loosed the dogs of war;/
God's truth goes marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!/
Glory, glory, hallelujah!/
Glory, glory, hallelujah;/
God's truth goes marching on.
Unhappy world, you grieve for us, and yet for you we mourn;/
Some billion souls seek sustenance, a tithing of our corn:/
From dying fields, from teeming slums, fresh terrors will be born -/
Can truth go marching on?
Glory, glory, hallelujah!/
Glory, glory, hallelujah!/
Glory, glory, hallelujah;/
Can truth go marching on?
((TEMPO="SLOW"))
Our strength lies not in battle gear but in humility;/
Through anguished meditation we discern our destiny:/
Our city on a hilltop shall embrace humanity;/
God's truth shall lead us on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!/
Glory, glory, hallelujah!/
Glory, glory, hallelujah;/
God's truth shall lead us on.
((/MAIN_TEXT))</pre>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">[</span><b style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">See on praeguse blogspoti pala lõpp. - <i>This is the end of the current </i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>blogspot</u> </span><i>posting.</i>]</b> </div>
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Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-39039639329872440652019-06-21T02:58:00.001-07:002019-06-24T10:47:07.946-07:00Toomas Karmo: XXVII, ehk 1869.a. suurjuubeli, üldlaulupeo tuli jõuab Tartu Observatooriumisse - Tartu Observatory Receives the XXVII National Song Festival Flame, Marking the Sesquicentennial of the Inaugural (1869) Festival<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v2gZvS50Nw8/XQyfKk8anXI/AAAAAAAAA3s/vMFUXgQ6iF0Ofc2Hn2vjaes1_GXpmMGOQCLcBGAs/s1600/VNNB____tuli_laehedalt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="956" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v2gZvS50Nw8/XQyfKk8anXI/AAAAAAAAA3s/vMFUXgQ6iF0Ofc2Hn2vjaes1_GXpmMGOQCLcBGAs/s320/VNNB____tuli_laehedalt.jpg" width="191" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Nii jõudis XXVII Üldlaulupeo tuli täna hommikul Tartu Observatooriumisse. Minu foto, pildistamise hetkeks UTC=20190621T0808Z; litsensitingimuste ehk taaskasutamise juhtnööriks võtta tavaline, paljulubav, Creative Commons. Nagu on normaalne <u>blogspot</u>i kirjastamise juures, saab fotot tavalises brauseris suurendada hiireklõpsuga. <i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- This morning the XXVII National Song Festival flame arrived at Tartu Observatory. My photo, from UTC=20190621T0808Z; for licensing terms, in other words for guidance on reproduction, take the duly permissive and liberal terms of Creative Commons. As is normal in <u>blogspot</u> publishing, the photo can be enlarged in a normal browser, through a mouse-click. [<u>NOTE ADDED:</u> This particular National Song Festival marks the 150th anniversary of the first (1869) Song Festival, which has long served historians as a milestone within the 1860s National Awakening. The process which the Awakening launched, and which went through its ups and downs over ensuing decades, was to culminate in a pair of legal instruments - on the one hand in the 1918-02-24 Declaration of Independence, and on the other hand in the 1920-02-02 Treaty of Tartu (Traité de Paix, with signatories "Esthonie" and "Republique des Soviets de Russie"), a little after the ceasefire which ended the 1918-1919 War of Indepedence. The XXVII Festival, scheduled for 2019-07-04 through 2019-07-07 in Tallinn, as a sesquicentennial, is currently being promoted with a procession of the Festival flame through various Estonian centres, both urban and (as in our case) rural. I guess that our local procedure, as I observed it this morning, is typical, with police escort, choirs, ladies in folk costumes (as visible in my photo), and a flag-waving, shutter-happy, crowd.]</span></i></b></td></tr>
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<br />Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-51867933276971165342019-06-17T11:51:00.001-07:002019-06-20T01:41:09.044-07:00Toomas Karmo: Postscriptum 2018.a. esseele ladina keele õppimise teemal / Postscript to 2018 Essay on the Studying of Latin <div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><u><b>Kvaliteedihinnang: - </b><i><b>Quality assessment:</b></i></u></span></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Selle viiepallilise skaala kohaselt, mis kehtib praegu Eestis, ja kindlasti ka naaberriikides, ja on tuttav kadunud, mitte tagantjärele leinatud, NSVL-i akadeemilise elu vaatlejatele (siin rakendades neid kergeid, lõtvu, kriteeriume, mida Kmo rakendab oma nõgises fantaseeritud "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimelises sangarliku raadio instituudis" ja oma nõgises fantaseeritud "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevki nimelises sotsialistliku matemaatika instituudis" - kus, fantaasias ette kujutatud kaksikinstituutide lõdva ja vähenõudliku hindamisreeglite kohaselt 1/5 on "eepiline läbikukkukmine", 2/5 "läbikukkumine, mis pole nii katastrofaalne, et eepilusust saavutada", 3/5 on "kehvavõitu läbipääsemine", 4/5 on "hea" ja 5/5 on "eeskujulik": 2/5. Põhjendus: Teema ei võimaldanud filosoofiliselt sügavat käsitlemist. - <i>On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 2/5. Justification: The chosen theme did not offer scope for philosophical depth. </i><br /><br /><br /><u>Variandikroonika: - <i>Revision history</i>:</u><br /><br />Kõik kalendrip</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">äevad-kellaajad variandikroonikas on ära toodud UTC-s. UTC, ehk "Maailmakell", on vana GMT-i, ehk "Greenwich Mean Time"-i, täpsustus. Tarvitusel on ISO ettekirjutatud YYYYMMDDThhmmZ ajastembi formaat (kusjuures YYYY on UTC aasta, MM UTC kuu, DD UTC kuupäev, hh UTC tunniarv, mm UTC minutiarv). UTC praegu jookseb Toronto tsiviilkellast 4 tundi ette, Tallinna tsiviilkellast 3 tundi taga. - <i>All times in these blog "revision histories" are stated in UTC (Universal Coordinated Time/ Temps Universel Coordoné, a precisification of the old GMT, or "Greenwich Mean Time"), in the ISO-prescribed YYYYMMDDThhmmZ timestamping format. UTC currently leads Toronto civil time by 4 hours and currently lags Tallinn civil time by 3 hours. </i><br /> </span></b><b style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i> </i></span></b></div>
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<li style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0.25em 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">20190620T0841/variant 1.1.0: Kmo kergelt timmis üht "proovikivi" ladinakeelse-anlüüsi harjutust. Ta tegi ka pisikesi grammatilisi või puhtstiililisi parandusi, ehkki enam kui 48 pärast variandi 1.0.0 koostamist. Üldise kontrolli juures ta märkas, et pakutud UTC seletused (siit mõni rida ülespoole) paraku vastasid Eesti ning Kanada talvekelladele, mitte Eesti ning Kanada suvekelladele. Seegi punkt on nüüd korda pandud. Kmo jättis endale õigust teha veelgi pisikesi, sisusliselt tähtsusetuid, puhtkosmeetilisi õiendusi, järgmise 200 tunni jooksul, kui siin protokollimata variandid 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, ... .<i> - Kmo fine-tuned one of his "touchstone" Latin-analysis exercises. He also make some tiny grammatical and stylistic repairs, even though more than 48 hours had passed since his writing of version 1.0.0. In the course of his general checking, Kmo noticed that his offered acount of UTC (a few lines above this present sentence) was unfortunately fitted to Estonian and Canadian civil winter time, rather than to Estonian and Canadian civil summer time. This fault he likewise corrected. Kmo reserved the right to make further tiny, nonsubstantive, purely cosmetic, tweaks, over the coming 200 hours, as here-undocumented version 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, ... . </i></span></span></b></li>
<li style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0.25em 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">20190617T1851Z/variant 1.0.0: Kmo laadis piisavalt lihtivud tööd </span><u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogspot</span></u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">i serverile. Ta jättis enda kätte õiguse teha veel pisikesi, sisusliselt tähtsusetuid, puhtkosmeetilisi õiendusi, järgmise 48 tunni jooksul, kui siin protkollimata variandid 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, ... - </span><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">Kmo uploaded an adequately polished version to the </span><u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogspot </span></u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">server. </span></i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>He reserved the right to make further tiny, nonsubstantive, purely cosmetic, tweaks, over the coming 48 hours, as here-undocumented versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, ... . </i></span></b></li>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><u>[FILOLOOGILINE TEAVE:</u> Lahkel lugejal palun andestada minu eestikeelseid kirjavigu. Kui pensionieas Välis-Eestist Eestisse ümberasuja, läinud aastakümnete pagulusolude sunnil ilma kodukeelse koolihariduseta, pean ma oma kirjakeelt nüüd parandama peamiselt praktilise harjutamise teel. Sellega ongi siinsamas <u>blogspot</u>is vahetevahelt algusi tehtud, ehkki kohmakalt. Keelelised parandusettepankud oleksid teretulnud, aadressil <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com</span>. - <u style="font-style: italic;">LINGUISTIC NOTE:</u><i> I ask the Gentle Reader to forgive my blemishes in Estonian prose. As a pension-aged resettler from the Estonian diaspora to Estonia, obliged by exile-diaspora circumstances over the past decades to forego formal Estonian schooling, I must now improve my Estonian prose composition for the most part simply through practice. I have made such a practical-prose beginning here and there in </i><u>blogspot</u><span style="font-style: italic;">, albeit clumsily. Linguistic corrections would be welcome, at the address </span><u>Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com</u>.] </span></b></div>
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Taustakirjeldus - <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Background</i></span> </h2>
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2018.a. talve lõpul, minu viimasel Kanadas asumise aasta alguses, ma kirjutasin ladina keele pedagoogikast siinses <u>blogspot</u>is inglise keeles, rubriigil "Studying Latin: Some Theoretical Whys, Some Practical Hows" (URL-il <a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/02/toomas-karmo-studying-latin-some.html">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/02/toomas-karmo-studying-latin-some.html</a>). Nüüd on aeg käes mullu Kanadas alustatud teemal pisut Eestis jätkata, ühe teatud esilekerkinud isiku julgustamiseks. <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>- At the end of 2018 winter, at the start of my final year of living in Canada, I wrote on the subject of Latin studies here in <u>blogspot</u> in English, under the heading "Studying Latin: Some Theoretical Whys, Some Practical hows" (at the URL </i></b></span><a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/02/toomas-karmo-studying-latin-some.html"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/02/toomas-karmo-studying-latin-some.html</b></i></span></a><b style="font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>). The time has now come for me to continue, here in Estonia, with the theme that I started in Canada, so as to encourage a certain recently emerging individual. </i></b></div>
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Nimelt on üks noorevõitu tudeng, prl või hr "ABC", astunud skaibiühendusse välismaalt, paludes minu nõu tema algavas ladinakeele õppimises. "ABC" on ülikooli lõpetanud. Seega pole ta hetkel kursustel, ja seega vajaks ta veel eriti kellegi nõu. Nõu ma pakun talle rõõmsalt ning tasutult. Ma leian, et sobiv on neid nõuandeid ka laiema Interneti üldsusega jagada, kuna nad võiksid tulevikus teistelegi kasulikuks osutuda. <b><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- Specifically, a rather youthful student, Miss or Mr "ABC", has recently started Skype communication from abroad, asking my advice in her or his just-launched Latin studies. "ABC" has finished university. He or she is consequently not at the moment enrolled in courses, and consequently is in particular need of advice. I give her or him my help cheerfully and for free. I find it additionally appropriate to share my tips with the general Internet readership, since my advice may in future prove useful to persons other than ABC. </span></i></b></div>
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Siinjuures on vaid üks hoiatus ehk "caveat" ("Cave canem" = "Hoia koera eeset", "Caveat emptor" = "Ostja olgu valvel"). Ehkki ma saan ABC-d aidata tasutult, ei ole mul tulevikus võimalik säärast abi mitmele kinkida. Seega caveant omnes! Juhul, kui mõnel ilusal päeval pöördub minu poole mõni teine ning kolmas isik "BCD" ning "CDE" analoogsete vajadustega, oleksin ma sunnitud suhtuma jõudsalt kasvavasse asjasse mitte täiesti eitavalt, kuid siiski kui ettevõtja ehk teenustemüüja. Kui, ütleme hüpoteetiliselt, kaugema tuleviku prl BCD osutub välismaalaseks nagu ABC, peaksin ma temaga koos uurima PayPal'i tasuvõimalusi. Ja kui, ütleme jälle hüpoteetiliselt, kaugema tuleviku hr CDE osutub eestimaalaseks, peaksin ma temalt paluma mingisugust sobivat tasu kas sularaha või pangaülekande või õunapuudepügamistööde näol, või - mis veelgi parem - minu eesti kirjakeele parandamises. <b><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- A reservation or "caveat" arises here. ("Cave canem" = "Look out for the dog", "Caveat emptor" = "Let the purchaser beware.") Although I can help ABC for free, it will not be feasible for me in future to offer this type of help to many people. So caveant omnes! If it should one fine day happen that some second and third individuals "Miss BCD" and "Mr CDE" turn to me with needs similar to those of ABC, I would be obliged to adopt, toward the vigorously expanding situation, an attitude not altogether negative, and yet nevertheless entrpreneurial, as appropriate in the selling of a service. If (let us hypothetically suppose) the BCD of the remoter future proves to be a foreigner, as ABC is, then I would have to explore PayPal financial-transfer possibilities with her. And if (let us again hypothetically suppose) the CDE of the more remote future turns out to be Estonian, I would have to ask him for appropriate compensation in cash or by bank transfer or by way of apple-tree pruning - or, what would be still better, through his tutoring me in Estonian prose composition. </span></i></b></div>
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Et ABC privaatsust kaitsta, ma siin ei seleta, millest soost on ABC, ega milles konkreetses välisriigis ta asub (ja veel ammugi mitte, milles linnas). Ma näiteks ei kinnita ega lükka ümber oletust, et ABC asub kusagil Aasias. Siin tuletaksin vaid meelde hea ameerika vanasõna, Las Vegase kohta, mis sobiiks iga linna-küla-aleviku kohta, asugu see kas Ameerikas või (näiteks) Aasias, Aafrikas või Austraalias: <i>Mis sünnib Vegases jäägu Vegasesse. - </i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i>To protect ABC's privacy, I will not here divulge ABC's gender or in what particular foreign country ABC is living (and much less in what foreign city). I for example neither confirm nor deny the supposition that ABC lives somewhere in Asia. Here I would simply call to mind the good American proverb, concerning Las Vegas, applicable to any city-town-village-hamlet anywhere, be it in America or (e.g.) in Asia, Africa, or Australia: </i>What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. </b></span></div>
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Konkreetseid soovitusi ABC-le ning teistele (1): Seadke sisse ajaregister - <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Concrete advice for ABC and others (1): Set up a timelog</i></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Peab kindlaks tegema, et vajalik aeg saab vajalikus mahus investeeritud. Nagu ma eelpoolmainitud essees (</span><a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/02/toomas-karmo-studying-latin-some.html">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/02/toomas-karmo-studying-latin-some.html</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">) 2018.a. nentisin, grammatika aluste õppimise puhul sobivalt kompaktsest ja asjalikust raamatust (isiklikult eelistaksin ma seal-mainitud Bettsi <i>Teach Yourself Latin</i>), tuleks investeerida paarsada tundi. ("...thanks to almost<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">two millennia of systematized teaching, we know just how long it takes to master Latin declensions and conjugations, for the pupil of average intelligence at or beyond late adolescence. With decently brisk instruction books, such a pupil does not need six hundred desk hours. Three hundred, perhaps even two hundred, or in the case of a really gifted pupil under two hundred, are known to suffice." - "...tänu ligi </span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">kahe aastatuhande süstemaatiseeritule õpetamisele, me teame küllaltki täpselt, kui kaua aega läheb </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">ladinakeele käändkondade ja pöördkondade omaksvõtmiseks, keskpäraste võimetega tudengi puhul </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">kas teismelise ea lõpu poole või veel kõrgemas elueas. Viisakalt kiiretempoliste õpikute juures niisugune </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">õpilane ei vajaks kuutsada õppelaua tundi. On teada, et piisab kolmestsajast, võimalikult isegi paaristsajast, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">ja erakordselt andeka õpilase puhul koguni alla kahesajast tunnist.") </span><b><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- It is necessary to make check that time has been duly invested. As I mentioned in the above-cited 2018 essay (</span></i></b></span><a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/02/toomas-karmo-studying-latin-some.html"><b><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/02/toomas-karmo-studying-latin-some.html</span></i></b></a><b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>), for the learning of foundational grammar from a suitable compact and businesslike book (personally I prefer the there-mentioned book by Betts, </i>Teach Yourself Latin<i>), it would be appropriate to invest a couple of hundred hours. ("...thanks to almost</i></span></b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">two millennia of systematized teaching, we know just how long it takes to master Latin declensions and conjugations, for the pupil of average intelligence at or beyond late adolescence. With decently brisk instruction books, such a pupil does not need six hundred desk hours. Three hundred, perhaps even two hundred, or in the case of a really gifted pupil under two hundred, are known to suffice.")</span></i></b> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit;">Siinjuures ma soovitaksin oma enda harjumust, kus ka olen läbi mõnegi aasta pidanud oma iga olulise õppeaine juures ajaregistri, arvutis, lameda-ASCII ehk </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">*.txt</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> formaadis. </span><b><i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Here I would recommend my own routine, under which I have for quite a few years been keeping a timelog for each of my significant study subjects, on computer, in flat-ASCII (</i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">*.txt</span><i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">) format. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Näitena toon siin, osaliselt, üks minu mitmest registrist - nimelt see, mis aitas mul valvata minu privaatset ladina keele õppimist, kui ma võtsin ladina keele uuesti käsile alatest 2007.a. (Ma olin küll veel kaugemas minevikus, aastail 1982-1983, olnud kursustel Austraalias, osaliselt Bettsi enda auditooriumis. Järelikult ei ole ma õpilase ABC raskemas seisundis. Tema praegune algus, vastandina minu 2007-09-29 algusele, on puhtalt nullist.) Antud näitest on näha, et ma hilisemates faasides olin oluliste autorite juures: "regula s. Benedicti" on vihje Nursia Benektiinuse munkade Reeglile, "Latin Prose" aga vihje Ontario (Kanada) gümnaasiumitele mõeldud umbes 1960.a.-st kogumikule, kus on pikki lõiki Caesarist ning Cicerost, lühemaid lõiki veel teistest autoritest. </span><b><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> - In illustration, I reproduce here, in part, one of my many timelogs - namely the one which helped me monitor my private Latin study, when I took up Latin again, as a refresher, from 2007 onward. (I indeed had in the more remote past, in the years 1982 and 1983, taken courses in Australia, in part in Betts's own classroom. Consequently my position is easier than ABC's. Her or his own beginning, in contrast to my 2007-09-29 beginning, is a beginning from zero.) From this illustration it can be seen that in the later phases of my work I have been using appropriate authors: "regula s. Benedicti" in the timelog is a reference to the monastic Rule from Benedict of Nursia, and "Latin Prose" a reference to a 1960-era Ontario (Canada) high-school anthology, offering long extracts from Caesar and Cicero, as well as shorter extracts from other authors.) </span></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20070929=02h02->0002h02 (HEBD 0000)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20070930=01h13->0003h15 (HEBD 0001)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071001=01h00->0004h15</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071007=01h33->0005h48 (HEBD 0002)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071008=00h47->0006h35</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071010=00h48->0007h23</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071014=00h46->0008h09 (HEBD 0003)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071018=02h15->0010h24</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..........</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071024=00h14->0010h38 (HEBD 0004)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071025=01h32->0012h10</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071026=01h21->0013h31</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..........</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071031=03h04->0016h35 (HEBD 0005)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..........</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071105=01h43->0018h18 (HEBD 0006)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071109=00h25->0018h43</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071110=00h05->0018h48</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..........</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071111=01h36->0020h24 (HEBD 0007)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071112=00h30->0020h54</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071113=00h34->0021h28</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071117=01h05->0022h33</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..........</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071119=00h50->0023h23 (HEBD 0008)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071120=01h02->0024h25</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071121=00h55->0025h20</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..........</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071126=00h58->0026h18 (HEBD 0009)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071127=00h24->0026h42</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071130=00h48->0027h30</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..........</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071203=00h20->0027h50 (HEBD 0010)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071204=00h17->0028h07</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071206=01h23->0029h30</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071207=01h11->0030h41</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..........</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071209=00h46->0031h27 (HEBD 0011)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071210=00h12->0031h39</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071211=01h04->0032h43</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071215=00h55->0033h38</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071216=01h03->0034h41</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..........</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071219=01h11->0035h52 (HEBD 0012)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071222=00h37->0036h29</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..........</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071226=01h26->0037h55 (HEBD 0013)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20071227=01h18->0039h13</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..............................</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">..........</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20080101=03h22->0042h35 (HEBD 0014)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">((/.../))</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20090702=00h27->0218h04</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20090928=00h14->0218h18__regul</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">a s. Benedicti</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20091005=00h09->0218h27</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20091009=00h16->0218h43</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20100521=00h06->0218h49__regul</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">a s. Benedicti</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">((/.../))</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20150622=01h17->0330h48</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20150624=02h16->0333h04</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20150625=01h18->0334h22</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20150626=02h38->0337h00</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">((/.../))</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20170728=01h21->0402h31__legeb</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">am in antologia "Latin Prose",</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;"> in parte secundaria</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20170729=01h27->0403h58__itaqe</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">* HEBDOMA_PERDITA</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">* HEBDOMA_PERDITA</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20170817=00h23->0404h21__itaqu</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">e</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">((/.../))</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20180306=00h02->0511h12</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20180307=00h03->0511h15</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">20180310=00h10->0511h25</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">((/.../))</span></span><br />
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Konkreetseid soovitusi ABC-le ning teistele (2): Kontrollige oma oskusi minu pisikeste "proovikividega" <i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- Concrete advice for ABC and others (2): Check your skills with my small "touchstone" exercises</span></i></h2>
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ABC saab kontrollida oma ladina analüüsimisoskusi paariminutilse vestluse juures, kui me järgmisel korral skaibime. Tal on hetkel Bettsi esimene peatükk vist läbi võetud. Seega siis pakuksin pisikesi proovikive, millega saab juba ülilühikese vestluse jooksul kontrollida, et tema esimese-peatüki asi on korras. Õpilane ABC tõlkigu mulle järgmisi proovikive inglise keelde, oma skaibimikrofoni juures: - <b><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ABC can check her or his Latin analysis skills in the course of a two-minute chat, when we next Skype. She or he has now perhaps finished the first chapter in Betts. I would consequently offer some tiny touchstones, through which we can confirm, in a brief chat, that ABC's first-chapter affairs are in good shape. Let student ABC translate the following touchstones into English, at his or her Skype microphone: </span></i></b></div>
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* (a) insulae puellarum<br />
* (b) puellae insularum<br />
* (c) Nauta puellam amat.<br />
* (d) Puellam nauta amat.<br />
* (e) Nautam puella amat.<br />
* (f) Puella nautam amat.<br />
* (g) Puellae nautas amant.<br />
* (h) Puellas nautae amant.<br />
* (i) Nauta insulam puellae amat.<br />
* (j) Nauta puellam agricolae amat.<br />
* (k) Nautae puellas insularum amant.<br />
* (l) Agricola est in insula cum puella.<br />
* (m) Agricola est in insula cum puellis. <br />
* (n) Agricolae in insula cum puella sunt.<br />
* (o) Agricolae in insulis cum puellis sunt. <br />
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[<b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">See on praeguse blogspoti pala lõpp. - <i>This is the end of the current </i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>blogspot</u> </span><i>posting.</i>]</b>Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-20826772022025719242019-01-19T12:28:00.000-08:002019-01-31T02:50:50.292-08:00Toomas Karmo: More Work on the Visually Brightest Stars (Upgrade in RASC Publishing) <div style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><u>Kvaliteedihinnang: - <i>Quality assessment</i>:</u></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Selle viiepallilise skaala kohaselt, mis kehtib praegu Eestis, ja kindlasti ka naaberriikides, ja on tuttav kadunud, mitte tagantjärele leinatud, NSVL-i akadeemilise elu vaatlejatele (siin rakendades neid kergeid, lõtvu, kriteeriume, mida Kmo rakendab oma nõgises fantaseeritud "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimelises sangarliku raadio instituudis" ja oma nõgises fantaseeritud "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevki nimelises sotsialistliku matemaatika instituudis" - kus, fantaasias ette kujutatud kaksikinstituutide lõdva ja vähenõudliku hindamisreeglite kohaselt 1/5 on "eepiline läbikukkukmine", 2/5 "läbikukkumine, mis poli nii katastrofaalne, et eepilusust saavutada", 3/5 on "kehvavõitu läbipääsemine", 4/5 on "hea" ja 5/5 on "eeskujulik": 2/5. Põhjendus: Teema ei võimaldanud filosoofiliselt sügavat käsitlemist. - <i>On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 2/5. Justification: The chosen theme did not offer scope for philosophical depth. </i><br /><br /><br /><u>Variandikroonika: - <i>Revision history</i>:</u><br /><br />Kõik kalendrip</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">äevad-kellaajad variandikroonikas on ära toodud UTC-s. UTC, ehk "Maailmakell", on vana GMT-i, ehk "Greenwich Mean Time"-i, täpsustus. Tarvitusel on ISO ettekirjutatud YYYYMMDDThhmmZ ajastembi formaat (kusjuures YYYY on UTC aasta, MM UTC kuu, DD UTC kuupäev, hh UTC tunniarv, mm UTC minutiarv). UTC praegu jookseb Toronto tsiviilkellast 5 tundi ette, Tallinna tsiviilkellast 2 tundi taga. - <i>All times in these blog "revision histories" are stated in UTC (Universal Coordinated Time/ Temps Universel Coordoné, a precisification of the old GMT, or "Greenwich Mean Time"), in the ISO-prescribed YYYYMMDDThhmmZ timestamping format. UTC currently leads Toronto civil time by 5 hours and currently lags Tallinn civil time by 2 hours. </i><br /> </span></b></div>
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<li style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0.25em 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">20190131T0943Z/variant 1.1.0: Kmo muutis kvaliteedihinnangut allapoole (varem 3/5, nüüd aga 2/5). Ta veel täiendas pakutud Tartu-Tõravere meteoroloogiajaama andmeid. <i><b style="font-size: 13px; font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">Ta jättis enda kätte õiguse teha veel pisikesi, sisusliselt tähtsusetuid, puhtkosmeetilisi õiendusi, järgmise 48 tunni jooksul, kui siin protkollimata variandid 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, ... </span></span></b> - Kmo revised his quality assessment downward, from 3/5 to 2/5. He also supplemented the information he had been offering on the Tartu-Tõravere meteorology station. </i></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>He reserved the right to make further tiny, nonsubstantive, purely cosmetic, tweaks, over the coming 48 hours, as here-undocumented versions 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, ... . </i></span></b></li>
<li style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0.25em 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">20190119T2026Z/variant 1.0.0: Kmo laadis piisavalt lihtivud tööd </span><u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogspot</span></u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">i serverile. Ta jättis enda kätte õiguse teha veel pisikesi, sisusliselt tähtsusetuid, puhtkosmeetilisi õiendusi, järgmise 48 tunni jooksul, kui siin protkollimata variandid 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, ... - </span><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">Kmo uploaded an adequately polished version to the </span><u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogspot </span></u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">server. </span></i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>He reserved the right to make further tiny, nonsubstantive, purely cosmetic, tweaks, over the coming 48 hours, as here-undocumented versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, ... . </i></span></b></li>
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<b>[<u>HOIATAV TEAVE:</u> Tunduvalt vigane <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>blogger</u></span>i-nimeline serveri tarkvara on viimaste kuude jooksul näidanud kalduvusi paigutada soovimatut valgevahet niimõnesse siia laaditud esseesse. Kui tundub, et ekraan lõpeb tühja ruumiga, tuleb veel allapoole liikuda, hiire abil. Essee lõpp ei ole käes enne, kui esineb tavaline <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u>i sõnum "Posted by Toomas (Tom) Karmo at". - <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Blogger</span></u>i tarkvara on ka näidanud kalduvusi, vähemalt kui rakendatud minu varema, aegunud, veebi esseedekirjutamise brauseri kaudu, toota HTML-i, mida eri allalaadivad brauserid formaadivad erinevatel viisidel. Mõned allalaadivad brauserid on võimalikult vahest mitte korralikult sisse lugenud kõik need "Cascading Style Sheets'e" (CSS-e), mis igas tavalises veebibrausers juhivad lehekülje servade, kõrvalparagrahvide jms. paigutamist. Kui Te oletate, et Teie kasutuselevõetud brauseris esineb CSS-e probleeme, olge kannatlikud: tõenäone on, et ehkki osa sisust on paigutatud mõnda veidrasse kohta (näiteks, brauseri alumise serva vastu, kui ta pidanuks minema parema serva vastu), siiski kõik serveri sisu on lükatud Teie brauserisse ühte või teisse k</b><b><b>ä</b>tteleitavasse paika. - Viimaseks, on võimalik et on <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u>i iseärasusi-eksitusi, väljaspool minu kontrolli, tähtede suuruse määramises, ridade vahemaa määramises või trükiploki parema serva õgvendamisstiili määramises. - Kes soovib aidata sääraste veebivigade parandamisega, või kes soovib ka teisigi tehnilisi nõuandeid pakkuda, võiks julgesti mulle kirjutada aadressil <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com</span></u>. - <i>CAUTION: A bug in the <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u> server-side software has in some past months shown a propensity to insert inappropriate whitespace at some points in some of my posted essays. If a screen seems to end in empty space, keep scrolling down. The end of the posting is not reached until the usual <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u> "Posted by Toomas (Tom) Karmo at" appears. - The <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u>software has also shown a propensity, at any rate when coupled with my erstwhile, out-of-date, Web-authoring uploading browser, to generate HTML that gets formatted in different ways on different downloading browsers. Some downloading browsers have sometimes perhaps not correctly read in the entirety of the "Cascading Style Sheets" (CSS) which on all ordinary Web servers control the browser placement of margins, sidebars, and the like. If you suspect CSS problems in your particular browser, be patient: it is probable that while some content has been shoved into some odd place (for instance, down to the bottom of your browser, where it ought to appear in the right-hand margin), all the server content has been pushed down into your browser in some place or other. - Finally, there may be <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u>vagaries, outside my control, in font sizing or interlinear spacing or right-margin justification. - Anyone inclined to help with trouble-shooting, or to offer other kinds of technical advice, is welcome to write me via <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com</span></u>.]</i></b></div>
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On 2018-01-01, I uploaded a <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><u>blogspot</u> </b></span>posting, as <a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/01/toomas-karmo-visually-brightest-stars.html">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/01/toomas-karmo-visually-brightest-stars.html</a>, on a publishing initiative at the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC). At the time, RASC had just undertaken the simultaneous issuing of 2018 Canadian and 2018 USA editions of its venerable annual <i>Observer's Handbook</i>. </div>
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Now, at the start of 2019, it is appropriate to upload an update. This update I write no longer from the vicinity of the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, but from my new quarters in the dark-sky hamlet, Tõravere, of Tartu Observatory in Estonia. </div>
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The 2018 RASC initiative has succeeded, with the debut USA edition generating sufficient interest to justify RASC in issuing a 2019 USA successor. We may now hope that in 2020 and later years, RASC proves able to follow the precedents it successfully set in 2018 and 2019. Further, I privately hope that over the coming years the USA edition will attract at least a few readers over here in Europe. </div>
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As RASC moves forward, I try to move forward too, from Estonia, in my continuing capacity as lead author of the <i>Handbook </i>visually-brightest-stars article. </div>
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The <i>Handbook </i>printed edition does not offer much scope for change, apart from the systematic updating of celestial coordinates in the brightest-stars table and the opportunistic updating of miscellaneous other tabulated data. The online brightest-stars work, on the other hand, can and should get overhauled from one year to the next. </div>
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For 2019, I have made only minor amplifications in my three-author collegium's online essay (now incorporating, however, all the substance from the printed-edition essay, so as to make the online version intelligible to those readers who lack the printed <i>Handbook</i>). My main online overhaul for 2019 has been not in the essay, but in the long star-by-star table that follows it. For present <b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>blogspot</u> </span></b>purposes, it suffices to reproduce what I write in the 2019 online essay regarding the 2019 online table: </div>
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<b><i>[Here is] an extended version of the printed-edition table, </i>(a)<i> with extra stars (the brightest 313, allowing for variability, where the printed edition has almost 30 fewer, allowing for variability), and </i>(b)<i> with additional remarks for most of the duplicated stars. The online essay and table try to address the needs of three kinds of serious amateur: amateurs who are also astrophysics students (whether or not enrolled formally at some campus); amateurs who, like many in RASC, assist in public outreach, through some form of lecturing; and amateurs who are planning their own private citizen-science observing runs, in the spirit of such “pro-am” organizations as AAVSO [the American </i></b><b><i>Association of Variable Star Observers; <a href="https://www.aavso.org/">https://www.aavso.org/</a>]. </i></b></div>
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<b><i>Our online project, now a couple of years old, must be considered still in its early stages. We cannot claim to have fully satisfied the needs of our three constituencies. Above all, we cannot claim to have covered all the appropriate points from stellar astronomy news in our “Remarks” column, important though news is to amateurs of all three types. We would hope in coming years to remedy our deficiencies in several ways, above all by relying more in our writing on recent primary-literature journal articles, and by making appropriate citations of the primary literature.</i></b></div>
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<b><i>Already at this early stage, we have tried to pick out a few tens of the more important recent journal articles. /.../ </i></b></div>
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The online essay and table may be downloaded for free by anyone, whether or not a member of RASC, from <a href="https://www.rasc.ca/sites/default/files/Brightest%20Stars_2019.pdf">https://www.rasc.ca/sites/default/files/Brightest%20Stars_2019.pdf</a>. Particulars on the printed-edition <i>Handbook </i>can be had from <a href="https://www.rasc.ca/handbook">https://www.rasc.ca/handbook</a>.<br />
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As an appendix to today's posting, I upload photos from my smartphone. As the last in my trio of Yuletide <b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>blogspot</u> </span></b>photos, from 2018-12-23, I selected the snowy road from the Tõravere rail platform to the Tõravere hamlet. Today I continue on that same wintry theme. </div>
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The Administration Building in Tõravere could barely be glimpsed in my Yuletide photo, at the far end of a straight tree-lined approach. Here is how it looked close up a few days ago, under a fresh snowfall, in the rather dim light characteristic of early afternoon in January at a latitude just nine or so<span style="font-family: inherit;"> arcseconds <span style="font-family: inherit;">S of <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 12px;">58°16´ N: </span> </span></span></div>
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And here is the internal astronomy-compound road leading westward from the Administration Building, to the various telescope domes, at the same time of day, under the same snowfall:<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-arPiGyEwXPI/XEOErKF6KBI/AAAAAAAAA0I/Jjg_BtykWjIzhaKwn6eX3yJKfDi1KdKGgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190110_130052_resized_20190119_082208275.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-arPiGyEwXPI/XEOErKF6KBI/AAAAAAAAA0I/Jjg_BtykWjIzhaKwn6eX3yJKfDi1KdKGgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20190110_130052_resized_20190119_082208275.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The little brick shed in the foreground (a left mouse-click yields an enlargement in the browser) has a mural of an antlered buck against a starry sky. To see the mural painter's conception of E.T., on the other hand, against a similarly starry sky, you have to walk around the corner of the shed, viewing it from the north rather than from the east.</div>
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The columns on the south side of the road are part of the rather large Tõravere astronomical park, illustrating the cosmic distance scale in a powers-of-ten style. </div>
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The building glimpsed in the rear, where the road turns, is not a telescope dome, but the support building for the instrument plaza of the Tartu-Tõravere meteorological station. This is a part of the Estonian Environment Agency network, as mapped at <a href="https://www.ilmateenistus.ee/ilmateenistus/vaatlusvork/">https://www.ilmateenistus.ee/ilmateenistus/vaatlusvork/</a>. The Tartu-Tõravere weather instrumentation is denoted on the Environment Agency's map by a green square lying 20 km east of the principal fully Estonian lake, Võrtsjärv. Tartu-Tõravere is one of just three continuously manned stations in the Estonia's network of roughly 20 meteorological posts. (All but two of the others, likewise denoted by green squares, are roboticized, and operated remotely. The many coloured disks on the map denote not meteorology, but posts for the aquatic monitoring of the sea-land edge (yellow), of bog-or-swamp (red), and of rivers or lakes (blue).). Lightning strikes are monitored at Tartu-Tõravere in radio. Special attention is given, in a longstanding pair of local meteorological traditions, to actinometry and to cloud taxonomy. Apart from meteorology, the Tartu-Tõravere station operates a magetometry hut - a facility of some special significance at present, with the North magnetic pole now moving rapidly, and with the next outright reversal in the Earth's magnetic poles now coming due. </div>
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<b>[This is the end of the current <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>blogspot</u> </span>posting.]</b></div>
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<br />Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-89607090223641552872018-12-23T09:20:00.002-08:002019-01-19T10:32:00.886-08:00Toomas Karmo: Jõulumõtted, "Koduse Koli" mereoperatsioonide lõpupäevil/ Christmas reflections, as "Operation Eastward Ho!" Maritime Operations Wind Down <div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><u>Kvaliteedihinnang: - <i>Quality assessment</i>:</u><br /><br />Selle viiepallilise skaala kohaselt, mis kehtib praegu Eestis, ja kindlasti ka naaberriikides, ja on tuttav kadunud, mitte tagantjärele leinatud, NSVL-i akadeemilise elu vaatlejatele (siin rakendades neid kergeid, lõtvu, kriteeriume, mida Kmo rakendab oma nõgises fantaseeritud "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimelises sangarliku raadio instituudis" ja oma nõgises fantaseeritud "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevki nimelises sotsialistliku matemaatika instituudis" - kus, fantaasias ette kujutatud kaksikinstituutide lõdva ja vähenõudliku hindamisreeglite kohaselt 1/5 on "eepiline läbikukkukmine", 2/5 "läbikukkumine, mis poli nii katastrofaalne, et eepilusust saavutada", 3/5 on "kehvavõitu läbipääsemine", 4/5 on "hea" ja 5/5 on "eeskujulik": 3/5. Põhjendus: Tähtis teema leidis veidi kiire käsitluse. - <i>On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 3/5. Justification: An important theme got treated a little rapidly. </i><br /><br /><br /><u>Variandikroonika: - <i>Revision history</i>:</u><br /><br />Kõik kalendrip</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">äevad-kellaajad variandikroonikas on ära toodud UTC-s. UTC, ehk "Maailmakell", on vana GMT-i, ehk "Greenwich Mean Time"-i, täpsustus. Tarvitusel on ISO ettekirjutatud YYYYMMDDThhmmZ ajastembi formaat (kusjuures YYYY on UTC aasta, MM UTC kuu, DD UTC kuupäev, hh UTC tunniarv, mm UTC minutiarv). UTC praegu jookseb Toronto tsiviilkellast 5 tundi ette, Tallinna tsiviilkellast 2 tundi taga. - <i>All times in these blog "revision histories" are stated in UTC (Universal Coordinated Time/ Temps Universel Coordoné, a precisification of the old GMT, or "Greenwich Mean Time"), in the ISO-prescribed YYYYMMDDThhmmZ timestamping format. UTC currently leads Toronto civil time by 5 hours and currently lags Tallinn civil time by 2 hours. </i><br /> </span></b></div>
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<li style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0.25em 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">20181223T1720Z/variant 1.0.0: Kmo laadis piisavalt lihtivud tööd </span><u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogspot</span></u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">i serverile. Ta jättis enda kätte õiguse teha veel pisikesi, sisusliselt tähtsusetuid, puhtkosmeetilisi õiendusi, järgmise 48 tunni jooksul, kui siin protkollimata variandid 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, ... - </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">Kmo uploaded an adequately polished version to the </span><u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogspot </span></u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">server. </span></i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>He reserved the right to make further tiny, nonsubstantive, purely cosmetic, tweaks, over the coming 48 hours, as here-undocumented versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, ... . </i></span></b></li>
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<b>[<u>HOIATAV TEAVE:</u> Tunduvalt vigane <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>blogger</u></span>i-nimeline serveri tarkvara on viimaste kuude jooksul näidanud kalduvusi paigutada soovimatut valgevahet niimõnesse siia laaditud esseesse. Kui tundub, et ekraan lõpeb tühja ruumiga, tuleb veel allapoole liikuda, hiire abil. Essee lõpp ei ole käes enne, kui esineb tavaline <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u>i sõnum "Posted by Toomas (Tom) Karmo at". - <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Blogger</span></u>i tarkvara on ka näidanud kalduvusi, vähemalt kui rakendatud minu varema, aegunud, veebi esseedekirjutamise brauseri kaudu, toota HTML-i, mida eri allalaadivad brauserid formaadivad erinevatel viisidel. Mõned allalaadivad brauserid on võimalikult vahest mitte korralikult sisse lugenud kõik need "Cascading Style Sheets'e" (CSS-e), mis igas tavalises veebibrausers juhivad lehekülje servade, kõrvalparagrahvide jms. paigutamist. Kui Te oletate, et Teie kasutuselevõetud brauseris esineb CSS-e probleeme, olge kannatlikud: tõenäone on, et ehkki osa sisust on paigutatud mõnda veidrasse kohta (näiteks, brauseri alumise serva vastu, kui ta pidanuks minema parema serva vastu), siiski kõik serveri sisu on lükatud Teie brauserisse ühte või teisse k</b><b><b>ä</b>tteleitavasse paika. - Viimaseks, on võimalik et on <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u>i iseärasusi-eksitusi, väljaspool minu kontrolli, tähtede suuruse määramises, ridade vahemaa määramises või trükiploki parema serva õgvendamisstiili määramises. - Kes soovib aidata sääraste veebivigade parandamisega, või kes soovib ka teisigi tehnilisi nõuandeid pakkuda, võiks julgesti mulle kirjutada aadressil <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com</span></u>. - <i>CAUTION: A bug in the <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u> server-side software has in some past months shown a propensity to insert inappropriate whitespace at some points in some of my posted essays. If a screen seems to end in empty space, keep scrolling down. The end of the posting is not reached until the usual <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u> "Posted by Toomas (Tom) Karmo at" appears. - The <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u>software has also shown a propensity, at any rate when coupled with my erstwhile, out-of-date, Web-authoring uploading browser, to generate HTML that gets formatted in different ways on different downloading browsers. Some downloading browsers have sometimes perhaps not correctly read in the entirety of the "Cascading Style Sheets" (CSS) which on all ordinary Web servers control the browser placement of margins, sidebars, and the like. If you suspect CSS problems in your particular browser, be patient: it is probable that while some content has been shoved into some odd place (for instance, down to the bottom of your browser, where it ought to appear in the right-hand margin), all the server content has been pushed down into your browser in some place or other. - Finally, there may be <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u>vagaries, outside my control, in font sizing or interlinear spacing or right-margin justification. - Anyone inclined to help with trouble-shooting, or to offer other kinds of technical advice, is welcome to write me via <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com</span></u>.]</i></b></div>
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(A) Oma pealkirjast hoolimata, istun praegu merest kaugel Tartumaal, Nõo vallas, Tõravere alevikus, oma suures töötoas observatooriuimi peahoone läheduses. Homme algavad kauakestvad perekonnapühad, vist kahes erinevas Eesti linnas järjestikku. Praegu tahaksin fotode abil Heldele Lugejale kirjeldada siinset vaikselt peetud neljandat advendipüha. <b><i>- My title headline notwithstanding, I am sitting at present far from the sea, in Tartu County, in Nõo Commune, in the Tõravere hamlet, in my big workroom near the observatory Administration Building. The long-drawn-out family holiday celebrations start tomorrow, apparently in two different Estonian cities in their turn. At the moment, I would like to describe for the Gentle Reader, with the help of photos, my quietly celebrated local Fourth Sunday in Advent. [<u>NOTE ADDED:</u> The coast lies roughly </i></b><b><i>100 km to my west.] </i></b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kui tore, ka kui muusikaliselt korrektne, oli Missa, Tartu katoliku kirikus, Tõraverest 20 km eemal! Nüüd on aga kohvi joodud kirikulistega, kringlitükk söödud, seega tagasisõidu aeg käes. <b><i>- Such a wonderful, and also musically correct, Mass, in the Tartu Catholic church, about 20 km from Tõravere! Now the parochial coffee and kringel have been consumed, and so it is time for the journey home. [<u>NOTE ADDED: </u>Estonians everywhere, both at home and abroad (for instance, in the Canadian postwar diaspora) serve their coffee at their more fastidiously catered public functions with "kringel", a rather heavy sweet cake baked in the shape of an oven-sized prezel.</i></b>] </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Istun Tartu jaama kohvikus. Rong väljub 15.04, umbes tunni või poole tunni pärast. Hetkel saab pisut Vana Testamendi heebrea keelt õppida, kohvikuvaikuses. Fotos ongi näha minu teetass ja minu hästi kulunud Pratico-Van Pelti keeleõpik. <b><i>- I am sitting in the Tartu station café. The train pulls out at 15.04, in roughly an hour or a half-hour. At the moment, it is possible to study a bit of Old Testament Hebrew, in the silence of the eatery. In the photo, my teacup can be seen, and also my well-worn Pratico-Van Pelt Hebrew manual. [<u>NOTE ADDED:</u> The station (the café, and also its small suite of waiting rooms) has in the last few years been restored to its general Victorian appearance, from around 1876. The café features exposed brick and rough woodwork. In the waiting rooms are wooden benches, and also quite a few glass cases and wall displays, illustrating the history of the old "Baltische Eisenbahn". I am fond of a wall-mounted reproduction of an old timetable, giving details of services to Berlin-Vienna.] </i></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rong jõudis Tõraverre umbes 15.24, mõni minut pärast loojangut. Talvine matk hõlmab umbkaudselt 1.5 km, rongipeatusest minu korterihoone eesukseni. Praegu, võib-olla mitte veel selle jaltuskäigu poole maa pealt, paistab puuridade keskelt observatooriumi peahoone esikfassaadi keskmine lõik. <b><i>- The train reached Tõravere around 15.24, some minutes after sunset. The wintry walk extends over about 1.5 km, from the railway platform to the front door of my apartment building. At the moment, perhaps not yet halfway in this hike, the central portion of the main facade of the observatory Administration Building appears between rows of trees.</i></b> </td></tr>
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(B) Asudes siin merelt kaugel, ometi mõtlen ma merendusele. Osaliselt tuleb see juba sellest, et iga observatoorium, Eesti oma väike teaduselaev kaasa arvatud, on alus Jumala Mereväes. Kuid osaliselt, tõsi öelda, on selline mõttelend tänavu ka sellest tingitud, et minu umbes 2000-st Kanadast saadetud köitest on umbes 315 soolaveega kokku puutunud, seega tekitades mul kindlustusameti paberiteajamist. Nagu näitavad vastava spetsialisti hiljutitehtud hõbenitraadi korduvad katsed, sündis kahju tõenäoliselt minu koorma Montréali-Bremerhaveni lõigul. Oletaksin, et õnnetus tuli siis, kui lained peksid üle parda, minu (võimalikult pardalasuva) 20-jalgse konteineri vastu. <b><i>- Situated far from the sea as I am, I nevertheless think of seafaring. In part this stems already from the fact that every observatory, Estonia's little astrophysical vessel included, is a hull in God's Navy. But in part also, if the truth be told, my maritime thinking this year stems from the fact that of my roughly 2000 book volumes shipped from Canada, about 315 have come into contact with brine, thereby triggering insurance paperwork. As the repeated silver-nitrate trials of an insurance specialist show, the damage probably occurred on the Montréal-Bremerhaven leg. I would presume the misfortune to have occurred when waves broke over the deck, against my (probably deck-stowed) 20-foot container. </i></b></div>
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Siinjuures tahaksin Lahkele Lugejale pakkuda oma tõlke Charles Dickens'i jõuluklassikust, noppides sealt tõlikimiseks välja vaid lühikest merega seotud lõiku. Klassikut oma täies ulatuses on kerge kätte saada originaalkeeles, näiteks aadressil <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-h/46-h.htm">https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-h/46-h.htm</a>. <b><i>- I would like herewith to offer the Gentle Reader my translation from Charles Dickens's Christmas classic, picking out for my translation just that short passage which connects with seafaring. The unabridged classic is easily obtained in its original English, for instance from <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-h/46-h.htm">https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-h/46-h.htm</a>. </i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Scrooge' i ehmutuseks, kui ta tagasipoole vaatas, nägi ta maa lõppu, kui kohutav seljatagune kivihari; ja tema kõrva ajas kurdiks vete mürin, kui meri rullus ja möirgas, raevutsedes keset neid hirmsaid koopaid, mida ta oli välja uuristanud, oma kurjatahtlikus maapinna õõnestamispüüdluses. <b><i>- To Scrooge’s horror, looking back, he saw the last of the land, a frightful range of rocks, behind them; and his ears were deafened by the thundering of water, as it rolled and roared, and raged among the dreadful caverns it had worn, and fiercely tried to undermine the earth. </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Ehitatuna trööstitu uppunud kari otsa, mille peal merevesi aina küüris ja peksis, metsiku aasta läbi, seisis - mõni viis versta rannast - üksildane majakas. Suured vetikate hunnikud haarasid selle alusest kinni, ja tormilinnud - võinuks oletada, et tuulest sündinud, nagu vetikadki veest - tõusid ja langesid majakapaiga ümber, nagu need samad lainedki, mida need linnud oma madalate lendudega riivasid. <b><i>- Built upon a dismal reef of sunken rocks, some league or so from shore, on which the waters chafed and dashed, the wild year through, there stood a solitary lighthouse. Great heaps of sea-weed clung to its base, and storm-birds—born of the wind one might suppose, as sea-weed of the water—rose and fell about it, like the waves they skimmed.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Kuid ka siin, kaks meest, kelle kohustuseks oli majakalambi hooldamine, olid tule teinud, mis läbi paksu kiviseina pilu heitis oma heleduse kiirt õudsale merepinnale. Pannes oma parkunud käed kokku üle karedapinnalise laua, mille juures nad istusid, soovisid nad üksteisele oma joogitoobritega häid pühi; ja üks neist - pealegi see vanem, tema nägu kannatanud ja armides raskete ilmade tagajärjena, nagu mõne vanunenud laeva vöörifiguur - alustas jõulise lauluga, mis oli juba iseenesest mõni Tormituul. <b><i>- But even here, two men who watched the light had made a fire, that through the loophole in the thick stone wall shed out a ray of brightness on the awful sea. Joining their horny hands over the rough table at which they sat, they wished each other Merry Christmas in their can of grog; and one of them: the elder, too, with his face all damaged and scarred with hard weather, as the figure-head of an old ship might be: struck up a sturdy song that was like a Gale in itself.</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Scrooge'i vaimuilmast teejuht kihutas aga edasi, üle musta ja hoova mere - edasi, edasi - kuni, olles kaugel (nagu ta seda Scrooge'ile seletas) igast rannast, sattusid nad laevale. Nad seisid tüürimehe kõrval, roolil; nad peatusid vöörivahi kõrval; naid seisid vahiohvitseride seltsis; tumedad, tontlikud kujud kõik, igaüks oma ametipostil; kuid iga mees nende seast umises mõnda jõuluviisi, või mõlgutuas mõnda jõulumõtet, või pajatas summutatud häälel oma ligiseisvale ametivennale mõnest ammuläinud jõuluajast, mille jutu juures oli tal oma kodupoole suunatud lootusi. Ja igal mehel pardal, olgu ta kas ärkvel või tukkumas, kas iseloomult hea või vastupidi, oli pakkunud mõne heatahtlikuma sõna oma ligemesele selle päeva jooksul kui ta seda oli teinud ükskõik millel teisel päeval oma aastaringis; ja oli mingisugusel määral osalenud selle päeva pidutsemistel; ja oli endale meelde tuletanud need, kes olid kauguste tagant talle südamelähedased, olles ka teadlik, et neilgi oli rõõm teda meelde tuletada. <b><i>- Again the Ghost sped on, above the black and heaving sea—on, on—until, being far away, as he told Scrooge, from any shore, they lighted on a ship. They stood beside the helmsman at the wheel, the look-out in the bow, the officers who had the watch; dark, ghostly figures in their several stations; but every man among them hummed a Christmas tune, or had a Christmas thought, or spoke below his breath to his companion of some bygone Christmas Day, with homeward hopes belonging to it. And every man on board, waking or sleeping, good or bad, had had a kinder word for another on that day than on any day in the year; and had shared to some extent in its festivities; and had remembered those he cared for at a distance, and had known that they delighted to remember him.</i></b></span></div>
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(C) See olgu minu mitmele lugejale - pereringis Eestis; teistele pereliikmetele, hõimudele, sõpradele rahutu ookeani taga Kanadas, ja mujalgi; vahetevahelt raskevõitu isikutele Kanada munitsipaalses elus ning Venemaa Föderatsiooni luureametis - mu parimate soovidega koostatud jõulukaardiks. Jõululapse rahu tulgu teile kõigile. Ja head pühade algust! <b><i>- Let this be my Christmas card, put together with my best wishes for my many readers - for the family circle in Estonia; for friends and other family, including those across the restless ocean in Canada; and for occasionally problematic individuals in Canadian municipal life and in the Russian state-security establishment. May the peace of the Christmas Child be with you all. And a happy start to the holidays! </i></b> </div>
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Toomas Karmo </div>
Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-91375245337271306062018-11-12T08:25:00.000-08:002018-11-13T01:21:33.738-08:00Toomas Karmo: Operatsioon "Kodune Koli": edukalt Eestis/ Operation "Eastward Ho!": safely in Estonia <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kuplipõranda grupipilt südandtkiskuvalt õhtult, 2018-10-26 (R), kui olin saadetud DDO Defendersite õnnesoovidega pikale 2018-10-29/2018-10-31 teekonnale Toronto-Pearsonist üle Keflaviki ja Lutoni Eestisse. Vasakult: astro-teadlane dr Tuba Koktay, endine DDO teleskoobioperaator ehk ööasistent pr Heide DeBond, mina ise, meie ülemitmeaastane hea sõber (ning tähtede sõber) hr A.McC. Tagaplaanil DDO 1.88-meetrine (esimene valgus 1935.a. kevade lõpul). Kuni 2008.a.-ni, kui DDO oli veel Toronto Ülikooli valduses, oli spektrograafi CCD-kaamera jahutus vedellämmastikuga. Tõravere on DDO-st moodsam, ja sisuliselt valgusreostuseta taevaste all, kuid veidi tagasihoidlikumalt varustatud: 1.88 meetri asemel 1.5 meetrit, ja jahutuseks vedellämmastikust oluliselt soojem Peltier termoelement. Pildistajaks oli dr Ian Shelton. Südamlikku tänu Sheltonite perekonnale, õhtu korraldajatena.<b><i> - Observing-floor group photo from the heart-wrenching evening, 2018-10-26 (FRI), on which I was sent off by the DDO Defenders, with their good wishes, on my long 2018-10-29/2018-10-31 journey from Toronto-Pearson via Keflavik and Luton to Estonia. From the left: astro-scientist Dr Tuba Koktay; former DDO Telescope Operator (i.e., night assistant) Mrs Heide DeBond; I myself; and our good friend over the years (and friend of the stars) Mr A.McC. In the background is the DDO 1.88-metre (whose First Light was in the late spring of 1935). Until 2008, when DDO was still in the possession of the University of Toronto, the spectrograph CCD camera was cooled with liquid nitrogen. Tõravere, although more modern than DDO, and although enjoying skies free of substantive light pollution, is a little less well endowed: 1.5 metres in place of 1.88 metres, and for cooling not liquid nitrogen, but a significantly warmer Peltier thermocouple. Dr Ian Shelton took the picture. Heartfelt thanks are due to the Shelton family as organizers of the evening. </i></b></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nüüd on Kanadast saanud mälestuste maa. Siin mu uue elamu aknariiul Tõraveres, ühe ja teise mälestusesemega: Korporatsioon Vironia värve (loodaksin oma liikmelisust sel hilissügisel üle kanda Torontost Eestisse); kaarte Kanada sõprade õnnesoovidega (esireas kaks kaarti DDO Defendersite praegusest juhatusest, üle antud 2018-10-26 (R) jumalagajätuõhtul, nagu ka eelmises <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><u>blogspot</u></b></span>'i fotos dokumenteeritud); Kanada looduspiltide kalender, sõbralt kingituna. Käbid on juba Tõravere, mitte Kanada, puudest. Kruus on eriti markantne lahkumistähis, kingitud mitte DDO Defendersite vaid Richmond Hill Naturalistsite DDO kaitserühma poolt. Peale on kuidagi laaserprintitud foto, mida tegi Naturalistsite rühm päeval, kui ametlikult lõppes n.ö. Dunlapi Sõda (nagu mul ka siinsamas <b><u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogspot</span></u></b>'is kirjeldatud ajastembil 2018-06-10 (P), inglise keeles, rubriigil "The 'DDO&P Conflict', 2007-09-10 to 2018-06-09"). Riiuli serval asub väike auguline münt, Taanist, 1925.a.-st. See asus Isa-Ema asjade hulgas, mõnes kastis või lauasahtlis, kui ma poisike olin Nova Scotia paguluses. Juba tollal imetlesin ma tema viikinguajastu augulist kuju. Praegu aga hindan ma teda kui raskete aegada mälestist. See minimaalse nominaalse väärtusega Taani münt pidi tulema ajast, mil Isa ja Ema olid pagulased Kopenhaagenis. Seal toimus nende VE-päev, ehk nende 1945-05-08 (T). Kopenhaageni aeg oli mu vanemate pika põhiliselt läändesuunatud teekonna varajaseid etappe: neil järgnes Rootsi, aga siis Isa puhul <u>Empress of Canada</u> Inglismaalt Halifaxi, 1948.a. hilistalvel, Ema puhul <u>Gripsholm </u>otse Göteborgist Halifaxi, 1949.a. jaanuaris. <b>- Now Canada has become a country of memories. Shown is the window ledge of my new sleeping-room in Tõravere, with various mementos: my colours in the Estonian academic fraternity Korporatsioon Vironia (I would hope to transfer my Vironia membership this late autumn from Toronto to Estonia); some cards from Canadian friends with the good wishes (at the front, two cards from the current executive of the DDO Defenders, given to me in the farewell evening of 2018-10-26 (FRI), as documented also in the previous <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogspot</span></u> photo); a calendar with Canadian nature photos, from a friend. The cones are for their part already from Tõravere, not from Canadian, trees. The mug is a particularly notable memento, given to me not by the DDO Defenders but by the Richmond Hill Naturalists' DDO conservation team. On it has somehow been laser-printed a photo which the Naturalists' team took on the day the Dunlap War officially ended (as I have recounted here in </b><u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>blogspot </b></span></u><b>under the timestamp 2018-06-10 (SUN), in English, under the title "The 'DDO&P Conflict', 2007-09-10 to 2018-06-09"). At the front edge of the window embrasure is a small coin, with central hole, from Denmark, dated 1925. This item lay among Mum's and Dad's things, in some box or drawer, when I was a little boy in the Nova Scotian segment of our national postwar diaspora. Already back then I marvelled at its Viking-era perforated design. Now, however, I keep it as a memento of hard times. This coin, of minimal nominal value, must have come from the period when Mum and Dad were exiles in Copenhagen. It was in that city that they had their VE Day, in other words their 1945-05-08 (TUE). Their Copenhagen time was one of the early stages in their long, in essence westward, journey: Sweden came next for them, but then in my Dad's case the <u>Empress of Canada</u> from England to Halifax, in the late winter of 1948, and in my Mum's case the <u>Gripsholm </u>directly from Göteborg to Halifax, in January of 1949. </b></td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><u>Kvaliteedihinnang: - <i>Quality assessment</i>:</u><br /><br />Selle viiepallilise skaala kohaselt, mis kehtib praegu Eestis, ja kindlasti ka naaberriikides, ja on tuttav kadunud, mitte tagantjärele leinatud, NSVL-i akadeemilise elu vaatlejatele (siin rakendades neid kergeid, lõtvu, kriteeriume, mida Kmo rakendab oma nõgises fantaseeritud "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimelises sangarliku raadio instituudis" ja oma nõgises fantaseeritud "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevki nimelises sotsialistliku matemaatika instituudis" - kus, fantaasias ette kujutatud kaksikinstituutide lõdva ja vähenõudliku hindamisreeglite kohaselt 1/5 on "eepiline läbikukkukmine", 2/5 "läbikukkumine, mis poli nii katastrofaalne, et eepilusust saavutada", 3/5 on "kehvavõitu läbipääsemine", 4/5 on "hea" ja 5/5 on "eeskujulik": 3/5. Põhjendus: Tähtis teema leidis veidi kiire käsitluse. - <i>On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 3/5. Justification: An important theme got treated a little rapidly. </i><br /><br /><br /><u>Variandikroonika: - <i>Revision history</i>:</u><br /><br />Kõik kalendrip</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">äevad-kellaajad variandikroonikas on ära toodud UTC-s. UTC, ehk "Maailmakell", on vana GMT-i, ehk "Greenwich Mean Time"-i, täpsustus. Tarvitusel on ISO ettekirjutatud YYYYMMDDThhmmZ ajastembi formaat (kusjuures YYYY on UTC aasta, MM UTC kuu, DD UTC kuupäev, hh UTC tunniarv, mm UTC minutiarv). UTC praegu jookseb Toronto tsiviilkellast 5 tundi ette, Tallinna tsiviilkellast 2 tundi taga. - <i>All times in these blog "revision histories" are stated in UTC (Universal Coordinated Time/ Temps Universel Coordoné, a precisification of the old GMT, or "Greenwich Mean Time"), in the ISO-prescribed YYYYMMDDThhmmZ timestamping format. UTC currently leads Toronto civil time by 5 hours and currently lags Tallinn civil time by 2 hours. </i><br /> </span></b></div>
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<li style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0.25em 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">20181112T1625Z/variant 1.0.0: Kmo laadis piisavalt lihtivud tööd blogspoti serverile. Ta jättis enda kätte õiguse teha veel pisikesi, sisusliselt tähtsusetuid, puhtkosmeetilisi õiendusi, järgmise 48 tunni jooksul, kui siin protkollimata variandid 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, ... - </span><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">Kmo uploaded an adequately polished version to the </span><u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogspot </span></u><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif;">server. </span></i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>He reserved the right to make further tiny, nonsubstantive, purely cosmetic, tweaks, over the coming 48 hours, as here-undocumented versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, ... . </i></span></b></li>
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<b>[HOIATAV TEAVE: Tunduvalt vigane <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>blogger</u></span>i-nimeline serveri tarkvara on viimaste kuude jooksul näidanud kalduvusi paigutada soovimatut valgevahet niimõnesse siia laaditud esseesse. Kui tundub, et ekraan lõpeb tühja ruumiga, tuleb veel allapoole liikuda, hiire abil. Essee lõpp ei ole käes enne, kui esineb tavaline <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u>i sõnum "Posted by Toomas (Tom) Karmo at". - <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Blogger</span></u>i tarkvara on ka näidanud kalduvusi, vähemalt kui rakendatud minu varema, aegunud, veebi esseedekirjutamise brauseri kaudu, toota HTML-i, mida eri allalaadivad brauserid formaadivad erinevatel viisidel. Mõned allalaadivad brauserid on võimalikult vahest mitte korralikult sisse lugenud kõik need "Cascading Style Sheets'e" (CSS-e), mis igas tavalises veebibrausers juhivad lehekülje servade, kõrvalparagrahvide jms. paigutamist. Kui Te oletate, et Teie kasutuselevõetud brauseris esineb CSS-e probleeme, olge kannatlikud: tõenäone on, et ehkki osa sisust on paigutatud mõnda veidrasse kohta (näiteks, brauseri alumise serva vastu, kui ta pidanuks minema parema serva vastu), siiski kõik serveri sisu on lükatud Teie brauserisse ühte või teisse k</b><b><b>ä</b>tteleitavasse paika. - Viimaseks, on võimalik et on <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u>i iseärasusi-eksitusi, väljaspool minu kontrolli, tähtede suuruse määramises, ridade vahemaa määramises või trükiploki parema serva õgvendamisstiili määramises. - Kes soovib aidata sääraste veebivigade parandamisega, või kes soovib ka teisigi tehnilisi nõuandeid pakkuda, võiks julgesti mulle kirjutada aadressil <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com</span></u>. - <i>CAUTION: A bug in the <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u> server-side software has in some past months shown a propensity to insert inappropriate whitespace at some points in some of my posted essays. If a screen seems to end in empty space, keep scrolling down. The end of the posting is not reached until the usual <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u> "Posted by Toomas (Tom) Karmo at" appears. - The <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u>software has also shown a propensity, at any rate when coupled with my erstwhile, out-of-date, Web-authoring uploading browser, to generate HTML that gets formatted in different ways on different downloading browsers. Some downloading browsers have sometimes perhaps not correctly read in the entirety of the "Cascading Style Sheets" (CSS) which on all ordinary Web servers control the browser placement of margins, sidebars, and the like. If you suspect CSS problems in your particular browser, be patient: it is probable that while some content has been shoved into some odd place (for instance, down to the bottom of your browser, where it ought to appear in the right-hand margin), all the server content has been pushed down into your browser in some place or other. - Finally, there may be <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u>vagaries, outside my control, in font sizing or interlinear spacing or right-margin justification. - Anyone inclined to help with trouble-shooting, or to offer other kinds of technical advice, is welcome to write me via <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com</span></u>.]</i></b></div>
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Maailmakella ehk Temps universel coordonné ehk UTC järgi 20181031T0851Z lõppes mu pereringi Teine maailmasõda. Sõda oli mu vanemad Eestist pagulusse heitnud 1944.a. sügisel. Täheldud hetkel läbisin, kiiresti ja kergelt, Vabariigi passiga Tallinn-Ülemiste lennujaama passikontrolli. Vahest tundub asi, nüüd Tõravere põldude-puude kõrval kõndides, või nüüd Tartu hoonestikku uurides emale ja isale nii tuttavaks saanud munakivisillutistelt, pisut ebareaalne. On vahetevahelt nagu 126. Lauluski: "Kui Jehoova tõi tagasi Siioni vangid, olime kui unenäos." <b><i>- In the framework of Universal Coordinated Time, or UTC, the Second World War ended for my immediate family circle at 20181031T0851Z. That was the instant at which I passed, easily and rapidly, with my Republic of Estonia passport, through passport control at the Tallinn-Ülemiste air terminal. At times it feels, as I now stroll past the trees and fields of Tõravere, or as I now inspect Tartu streetscapes from some cobblestone paving grown so familiar to my mother and father, unreal. It feels at times as in Psalm 126: "When the Lord brought Zion's captives home, we were like people dreaming."</i></b><br />
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Alles nüüd saan ma aru, kuivõrd raske oli läbi aastakümnete nii mõne paguluse väljakutsega toime tulla. Nüüdse tagasiheidetud pilguga tundub, et on pagulus mul sageli tähendanud mingisugust varjatud kaost: mõnda nuansseeritud mõtetust, kus ma kippusin vastuollu langema ebaratsionaalsete inimeste või ebaratsionaalsete ühiskonnatavade või ebaratsionaalsete asutustega. <b><i>- Only now do I grasp how hard it was, through the decades, to come to terms with some of the challenges of exile. Now, in hindsight, it appears that the exile decades often meant for me a confrontation with a kind of camouflaged chaos - confrontation with a kind of nuanced thoughtlessness, making me liable to stumble into conflict with irrational people, or with irrational communal customs, or with irrational institutions. </i></b></div>
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Sellest eriti eredaks näiteks sai Kanada Richmond Hilli linnas, David Dunlapi nimelise 77-hektarilise observatooriumi (DDO) pargi 32-hektarilise rohelise alamala kaitseaktsiooni nurjumine. Kaduma läks 32 hektarit, umbes 530-580 elamu arvel, ehkki samaagselt on umbes samasuurune maatükk, Richmond Hilli peamise tuiksoone Yonge Streeti idaserval, lagedaks ja väljaehitamatuks jääanud. Dunlapi piirkonna ühistransport, Bayview Avenuel, on Yonge Streetist paratamatult kehvem. Juba sellest seisukohast, astrofüüsikast ning Kanada kultuuripärandist rääkimata, näib, kuivõrd on kohalikud munitsipaalsed asjad sassi läinud. See veel linnas, mille ajalooline tsentrum, otseselt mainitud Yonge Streeti tühimiku lõunaserva all, mädaneb, olles ka keskpäeval jalakäijatest tühi (postkontoritki pole tsentrumis olemas; samuti pole õiget pangandust ega õigeid toidusisseostude võimalusi). Samuti see linnas, mille raekoda asub tsentrumist kilomeetrite kaugusel, peaaegu linna kagupiiri vastu. <b><i>- A particularly vivid instance of this was in Canada's town of Richmond Hill, with the failure of efforts to save a 32-hectare greenspace portion of the 77-hectare David Dunlap Observatory (DDO). Lost were 32 hectares, through the construction of some 530-580 units of housing, even while a terrain of about the same area, on the eastern edge of Richmond Hill's principal artery Yonge Street, lay empty and undeveloped. The Dunlap-area public transport, along Bayview Avenue, is of necessity inferior to public transport on Yonge. Already from this public-transit standpoint, without regard for astrophysics and Canada's cultural heritage, it is evident what a mess has been made of municipal affairs. And this in a community whose historical downtown, immediately beside the southern edge of the Yonge Street wasteland, is decaying, lacking pedestrians even at midday. (There is not even a post office in the historic downtown core, nor proper banking, nor proper grocery shopping.) And this in a community whose town hall lies kilometres away from its historic core, almost on the southeastern municipal border.</i></b><br />
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Ärinduslik põhjendus kaitseaktsiooni nurjumiseks on küll olemas: Yonge Streedi idaserva tontidelejääanud maatükk oli paarkümmend aastat tagasi veel tööstushoonete all, kusjuures selle kannatadasaanud muld vajanuks tänapäeval kulukat puhastamist või kulukat eemaldamist enne elamute püstitamist. Selle vastu oli 32-hektariline kaotsiläinud Dunlapi ala pristiinne haljasmaa, kus polnud midagi muud vaja kui mets maha raiuda. Aga isegi kui too mets poleks olnud osa viimasest olulisest linnakesksest metsast meie York Regioni nurgas, hullumeelne oleks vaadata Dunlapi Observatooriumi läbi sääraste äriprillide. <b><i>- There is, to be sure, a business case to justify the failure of the environmental conservationist action. The wasteland along the east edge of Yonge was a couple of decades ago still under industrial use. Its damaged soil would today require expensive remediation or expensive removal before housing could be erected. The destroyed 32-hectare Dunlap terrain, on the other hand, was pristine greenspace, where nothing had to be done beyond felling the forest. But even had this woodland not been part of the last remaining significant stretch of urban forest in our corner of York Region, it would be insane to view the Dunlap Observatory through such commercial spectacles. </i></b></div>
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Nüüd saab hingata kergemini, ehkki elu ka siin ei saa tulevikus täiesti mõnus olla, nii noores ja nii majanduslikult kitsas pisivabariigis. <b><i>- Now it becomes possible to breathe more easily, even though life cannot in future be fully pleasant even here, in so young and so economically constrained a micro-republic. </i></b></div>
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Missas ei ole ma sunnitud enam inglise keeles mõtlema, ammugi mitte mulle 1958. aastast saadik koolides vajalikuks osutunud inglise keeles palvetama. Tartu kohalikus koguduses pühapäeviti kell 12.00 jäävad Kanadas tavaks saanud (Missal kahestusväärsed) liturgilised kitarridki ära. Nende asemel<br />
oli eile natuke gregooriust <i>a capella</i>, ühel õnnelikul puhul koguni keskajamoodi neljarealisest partituurist (ehkki mindi varstu üle tänapäevasele viierealisele - võimalikult samal koraalihetkel, kui ladina keelt vahetati eesti keelega välja). Nüüd pean edasi arendama omaenda ladinakeelse breviaariumi tarbimist, silmas pidades muuseas meie Tartu kiriku liturgilist korrektsust. Sealjuures tuleks mul rõhku asetada just <b><u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">universalis.com</span></u></b>-i pakutud ladinakeelsele variandile (nagu näiteks näha lehelt <a href="http://www.universalis.com/L/europe.sweden/0/i-lauds.htm">http://www.universalis.com/L/europe.sweden/0/i-lauds.htm</a>). Selles pean ma üle minema pelgast hommikupalvest rangema hommikupalve-õhtupalve-kompliini argipäeva rutiinile. <b><i>- I am no longer forced to think in English during Mass, and certainly am not obliged to pray in the English language that has since 1958 proved necessary in my schooling. Even the liturgical guitars customary in Canada (regrettable instruments in a Mass) are absent in Tartu at the 12:00. In place of guitars, we yesterday had some Gregorian chant </i>a capella<i>, at one happy moment even from the old 4-line mediaeval staves. (We did move over soon enough to the usual modern 5-line staff, possibly at the same instant in our hymnody at which Latin gave way to Estonian.) Now I must continue developing my use of the Latin breviary, keeping in view, among other things, the liturgical correctness of the church in Tartu. In that work, I ought to be placing particular emphasis onto the Latin option at <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">universalis.com</span></u> (as viewable from, for example, the page <a href="http://www.universalis.com/L/europe.sweden/0/i-lauds.htm">http://www.universalis.com/L/europe.sweden/0/i-lauds.htm</a>). And I must make the transition from a bare praying of the morning office to a more strict morning-plus-evening-plus-Compline workday routine. </i></b></div>
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Loodan, et saan Eesti kui väikseriigi suhtelises vaikuses ka jätkata heebrea keele õppimist. Sellele ma juba vihjasin Eesti kontekstis siinsamas <b><u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogspot</span></u></b>'is ajatsembil 2018-01-08. Lugeja, kes sellest huvitatud, peaks eriti vaatama 2018-01-08 pala lõik, mille alguse ligidal seletus "[Ladina keel] peaks meie kaasaegses katoliku maailmas olema vaid auväärne sild pühakirja algkeeltesse, s.o. heebrea ning koiné sõnastusse". <b><i>- I hope that I shall be able to continue studies in Hebrew, given the comparative quietness of small-nation Estonia. I already referred to such studies in an Estonian context here at <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>blogspot</u> </span>under the timestamp 2018-01-08. The interested reader might want to look in particular at that portion of the 2018-01-08 posting which contains, soon after its beginning, the words<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <u><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">In the present-day Catholic world, Latin should be only a respected, honoured bridge to the scriptural source languages, in other words to the Hebrew and the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;">koiné</span></u><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444;"><u> texts</u>. </span></span></i></b><br />
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Argielus osutub Eesti Tartumaal lihtsamaks kui Kanada Richmond Hillis elada ilma vee- ning elektripillumiseta, ka ilma suure prügitegemiseta. Korteriperemehe poolt lahkelt muretsetud pesumasinal on õnneks vaid väike trummimaht; on lihtne lülitada korteri boiler sisse ainult pooleks tunniks päeval, veidi en<span style="font-family: inherit;">ne <span style="background-color: white; color: #545454;">duš</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #545454;">š</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-size: x-small;">i</span>ta</span>mist; ja Tartu Tarbijate Co-op'ilt, ülikooli pearaamatukogu rajoonis, saab osta rosinaid-maapähkleid-tomateid kaalu järgi, omaenda kaasatoodud kilekottidega, pannes need kaalupannile otse müügiriiuli kõrval. Üldse tundub, pisut paradoksaalsel kujul, et paavst Franciscuse "Laudato s<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8C" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Ì">ì</a></span>'" põhimõtteid on kergem realiseerida usuliselt nii ükskõikses Eestis kui formaalselt katoliiklasemas Kanadas. <b><i>- In everyday living, it proves easier in Estonia's Tartu County than in Canada's Richmond Hill to get on without wasting electric energy and water, and also without generating much garbage. The washing machine which my landlord has generously procured is, fortunately, of low drum volume; it is easy to energize the hot-water tank for just half an hour a day, a little before taking a shower; and it is possible to buy peanuts-raisins-tomatoes in the Tartu Consumer Co-op, in the neighbourhood of the main university library, by weight, using plastic bags brought from home, and putting one's prospective purchases onto a weighing pan right beside the retail shelf. In general it seems, a little paradoxically, easier to implement the principles of Pope Francis's "Laudato s<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8C" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Ì">ì</a></span>'" in theologically apathetic Estonia than in more formally Catholic Canada. </i></b></div>
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Enne lõpetamist, paneksin veel paar asja kirja, lühidalt: <b><i>- Before finishing, I would like to set down a couple of further points, briefly: </i></b></div>
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(1) Ei ole unustanud, et peaksin ka tulevikus edasi viima oma <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">blogspot</u>'</span>i eesseedesarja "Perception, Action, and 'Subjectivity'". See on viimaste kuude jooksul soiku jääanud, logistiliste olude sunnil. <b><i>- I have not forgotten that I ought in future to carry on with my <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogspot </span></u>essay series "Perception, Action, and 'Subjectivity'". In recent months, logistical pressures have obliged me to neglect the task. </i></b></div>
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(2) Astronoomiatöö liigub edasi siin, hetkel peamiselt just Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) <a href="https://www.rasc.ca/sites/default/files/Bright_Stars_extra_rows_2019.pdf">https://www.rasc.ca/sites/default/files/Bright_Stars_extra_rows_2019.pdf</a> väljaande laiendamise-täiendamise näol, umbes 2018-12-31 kavandatud lõpuleviimisega. Ilmad on olnud sedavõrd halvad, et ei ole olnud võimalik kasvõi praegu kaasasoleva 7x35 binoklikga Tõravere taevast uurida. Tihe pilvede kate aga omamoodi selgitab Tõravere olusid: kui selge taeva juures on selle Tartu Observatooriumi vaatluskompleksi taevõlv lootuste kohaselt pime zeniidist ilmakaareni, siis praeguse halva ilma juures on paraku näha valguslompe vastu pilvi, nii Elva kui ka Nõo-Tartu suunas. Õnneks on need heledad valguslombid, pilvekihi alumisel serval, vaid umbkaudselt 10-20 kraadi kõrgusega. <b><i>- Astronomy moves ahead here, at the moment for the most part just in my updating and expanding of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) publication <a href="https://www.rasc.ca/sites/default/files/Bright_Stars_extra_rows_2019.pdf">https://www.rasc.ca/sites/default/files/Bright_Stars_extra_rows_2019.pdf</a>. Completion is envisaged for roughly 2018-12-31. The weather has been so bad lately that I have not been able to view the Tõravere astronomical sights, even with the 7x35 binoculars currently accompanying me. However, the thick cloud cover in its own way clarifies Tõravere conditons: whereas with a clear sky it is possible to inspect the celestial vault of that Tartu Observatory dark-sky compound from the zenith right down (as one would desire) to the horizon, with the present bad weather two patches of light unfortunately appear against the clouds, in the respective directions of Elva and of Nõo-Tartu. Happily, on the other hand, these bright puddles of light, on the bottom surface of the cloud deck, extend to an altitude of just 10 or 20 degrees. </i></b></div>
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(3) Nii ühelt poolt minu vanad RASC-i ning DDO Defendersite (DDOD) sõbrad praeguses Dunlapis (eriti DDOD ridadest astroteadlane dr Ian Shelton, oma astroteadlasest abikaasa dr Tuba Koktay'ga) kui ka teiseilt poolt minu tulevased sõbrad Tõraveres peaksid silmas pidama DDO-Tõravere tulevikulisi koostöövõimalusi, kasvõi lihtsas Johnson-Morgan UBV-fotomeetrias. Seda ma kirjutan silmas pidades muuseas Tartu Observatooriumi (Tõravere) dr Taavi Tuvikest, kes on laiaulatuslikus kampaanias uurinud SX Phe klassi kuuluvat muutlikut tähte CY Aqr-i. Kampaania hõlmas kuulsate observatooriumite kõrval, muuseas USNO-Flagstaffi, ka Itaalia Südtirolis asuva Realgymnasium Brunecki lihtsat 10.-sentimeetrilist Meade'i. Ilmselt ka tagasihoidlikes tingimusis, nagu Bruneckis, osatakse sisulist korda saata. Ehk Richmond Hilli linnavolikogu, pidades CY Aqr-i eeskuju meeles, saaks suunata mõningaid resursse Sheltonite poole DDO fotomeetria taaselustamiseks - ja see nüüd eriti olukorras, kus DDO Pätsi-epohhi pitoreskse 1935.a. peahoone filmimisvõimalusi on hakanud rahasid tooma selle munitsipaaliteedi laegastesse? <b><i>- On the one hand my old RASC and DDO Defenders (DDOD) friends at the present-day Dunlap (particularly, from the ranks of DDOD, astro-scientist Dr Ian Shelton, with his astro-scientist wife Dr Tuba Koktay), and on the other hand my future friends at Tõravere, ought to keep in view possibilities for future DDO-Tõravere collaboration, at any rate in simple Johnson-Morgan UBV photometry. I write this while recalling, among other things, the example of Dr Taavi Tuvikene at Tartu Observatory-Tõravere, who has in the course of a wide-ranging campaign observed the SX Phe variable CY Aqr. The campaign drew in not only well-known observatories, among them USNO Flagstaff, but also the humble 10-centimetre at Realgymnasium Bruneck, in Italy's Südtirol. Evidently the skills exist for procuring substantive scientific results even in such simple settings as Bruneck. Perhaps Richmond Hill Town Council, mindful of the CY Aqr example, could direct some resources toward the Sheltons, for the revival of DDO photometry - and this particularly now in a situation in which filmshoot opportunities at DDO's Konstantin-Päts-era 1935 Administration Building have begun generating monies for the municipal coffers? </i>[Note added: In Estonia, a thing from the "Päts era" is a thing redolent of Joan Crawford, of Wallis Simpson, or of DC-3 stewardesses - in other words a thing exuding a prewar elegance in some instances risible, but in others (as with DDO) prized by cognoscenti.]</b></div>
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<b>[See on praeguse blogspoti pala lõpp. - <i>This is the end of the current </i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>blogspot</u> </span><i>posting.</i>]</b><br />
<br />Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-8531405461438947692018-09-25T16:17:00.002-07:002018-09-25T16:21:36.789-07:00Toomas Karmo: Operation "Eastward Ho!" Update: Now in "Major Maritime Manoeuvre" <div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><u>Quality assessment:</u></span></b><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">On the
5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and
familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late,
unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and
lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr
Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr
Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary
"Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika
instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist
Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the
twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous
as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and 5/5 is
"excellent"): 2/5. Justification: This is a posting with only scant content. </span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><u>Revision history:</u></span></b></div>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">20180925T2317Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo uploaded an adequately polished version </span></b></li>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>[CAUTION: A bug in the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>blogger</u></span>
server-side software has in some past months shown a propensity to
insert inappropriate whitespace at some points in some of my posted
essays. If a screen seems to end in empty space, keep scrolling down.
The end of the posting is not reached until the usual <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>blogger</u></span> "Posted by Toomas (Tom) Karmo at" appears. - The <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>blogger</u></span>
software has also shown a propensity to generate HTML that is formatted
in different ways on different client-side browsers, perhaps with some
browsers not correctly reading in the entirety of the "Cascading Style
Sheets" which on many Web servers control the browser placement of
margins, sidebars, and the like. If you suspect "Cascading Style Sheets"
problems in your particular browser, be patient: it is probable that
while some content has been shoved into some odd place (for instance,
down to the bottom of your browser, where it ought to appear in the
right-hand margin), all the server content has been pushed down into
your browser in some place or other. - Anyone inclined to help with
trouble-shooting, or to offer other kinds of technical advice, is
welcome to write me via <u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">T</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>oomas.Karmo@gmail.com</u></span>.]</b></span></b></div>
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Here is a rapid, rather informal, update, regarding my envisaged 2018 October emigration ("Operatsioon 'Kodune Koli'"/'Operation 'Eastward Ho!'") from my native Canada to my ancestral Estonia. </div>
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I am now in the "Major Maritime Manoeuvre" phase of the overall emigration Operation. Readers who are themselves engaged in international moves should note my thinking regarding this Manoeuvre, as one key component of the overall Operation: </div>
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<li>Even if one's load is in volume terms a "Less than Container Load" (in shipping-industry language, an "LCL"), it is nevertheless advisable to consider making it a (20-foot) "Full Container Load" (an "FCL"). The reason for this is, as I am advised by an engineer, that in a mere LCL scenario one's boxes get placed onto a pallet, or onto some similar platform, and are then liable <i>(a)</i> to have someone else's boxes put on top of them, thereby exerting unhealthy vertical pressure, and <i>(b)</i> to be squeezed very tightly, as the maritime-preparations crew work hard to use up all room on their ship (thereby exerting unhealthy vertical or lateral pressure). </li>
<li>It is advisable to study the restrictions on wooden packaging entailed by ISPM 15, for instance as regards the import of wooden packaging into the European Union. (In my own particular case, as already described at <a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2017/03/toomas-karmo-stackerboxes-and.html">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2017/03/toomas-karmo-stackerboxes-and.html</a>, ISPM 15 does not seem to apply. My wooden packaging is of "particle board", assembled with glue under conditions of heat and pressure, and therefore immune from ISPM 15 restrictions curbing the international movement of wood-borne organisms. Other people, however, may be less lucky than I.)</li>
<li>It is advisable not only to get quotes from several firms, and to read consumer reviews to the extent that one's time may permit, but also to keep an eye on the level of knowledge which seems to be present within the various firms with which one is corresponding. ISPM 15 is one possible test case. The lowest quote may or may not come from the most knowledgeable firm. - I propose, upon completion of "Operatsioon Kodune Koli"/"Operation 'Eastward Ho!'", to divulge the identity of my selected firm and to discuss its performance. So far everything has gone well, making my present level of confidence high. </li>
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<b>[This is the end of the current blog posting.] </b></div>
<br />Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-66760030840128597942018-08-21T18:33:00.001-07:002018-09-12T08:10:07.741-07:00"DDO Park Archivists" Online Catalogue Launched <b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><u>Revision history: </u></span></b><br />
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<li><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">20180822t013000Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo uploaded base version. </span></b></li>
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<b><u>A short public-service announcement: </u></b><br />
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As I prepare for my envisaged 2018 October permanent emigration from my native Canada to the Tartu Observatory dark-sky compound (in the hamlet of Tõravere, in Nõo Commune, Tartu County, about 20 km southwest of Tartu, in my ancestral Estonia), I and some friends are putting casework archives from the David Dunlap Observatory and Park ("DDO&P") heritage-conservation case into order. We hope to donate the casework archives to one or more branches of government in Canada. The beginnings of an online catalogue for the archive, with also a couple of background essays in already-polished prose (explaining the guiding values of the project, and some of its mechanics) can from about 2018-08-20 onward be viewed at <a href="http://ddoparkarchivists.blogspot.com/">http://ddoparkarchivists.blogspot.com/</a>. </div>
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<b>[This is the end of the current blog posting.] </b>Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-5244155150355608352018-08-07T10:28:00.000-07:002018-08-09T08:39:05.731-07:00MUNICIPAL ADVISORY: child hazard at Richmond Hill Public Library now corrrectly managed; thoughts on public art, including precision sundials<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tTFD_-FtPls/W2sEb56YyjI/AAAAAAAAAvE/5hvp0Fv5ywAu9JvNZjs_7-65bHTJf_FGQCLcBGAs/s1600/rhpl_artwork_illustrating_dangerous_pointing_angle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tTFD_-FtPls/W2sEb56YyjI/AAAAAAAAAvE/5hvp0Fv5ywAu9JvNZjs_7-65bHTJf_FGQCLcBGAs/s320/rhpl_artwork_illustrating_dangerous_pointing_angle.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The telescope-like artwork, in essence a kaleidoscope without the moving beads, installed in the rose garden of the Richmond Hill Public Library in the early afternoon of 2018-08-07. My iPhone3 photo, from perhaps a half hour after the installation was completed by the artistic crew. I have rotated the artwork on its azimuth axis into a dangerous position, such as a child might unwisely select when pointing the device at the morning sun during the winter months. (At that season and time, the sun lies rather low in the sky, in the southeast.) Note the fine cooper detailing, with an open-book motif on the pedestal heat-treated under oxyacetylene; the fine selection of matte-or-similar stainless steel for the tube body; the fine selection of copper rings at sky end and ocular end; and the short-focal-length converging lens, in plain glass, at the sky end. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<u><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Revision history: </span></b></u><br />
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<ul>
<li><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">20180809T153000Z/version 2.0.0: Kmo added a big update, not only documenting a facourable response from the Town regarding the public-hazard question but also addressing a related topic: might the Town some day commission, as public art from the already-known artists, a -precision sundial? </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">20180808T164300Z/version 1.2.0: Kmo identified further aspects of the problem and wrote again to Clerks (appending the fresh correspondence as an "UPDATE"). </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">20180808T150200Z/version 1.1.0: Kmo added (1) photo, (2) update regarding municipal response. </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">20180807T172800Z:/version 1.1.1 Kmo wrote base version, and at the same time e-mailed his base version to <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">clerks@richmondhill.ca</span>. </span></b></li>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">This starts out as a hasty posting, addressing a kind of civic emergency, but morphs into a rather significant reflection, at my customary "quality assessment" of 4-out-of-5, on high-precision sundials in the context of public art. So scroll down, folks, until you get to the meaty part, on sundials.</span></i></b></div>
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<b>OPEN LETTER TO CLERKS, TOWN OF RICHMOND HILL, </b></div>
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<b>AS clerks@richmondhill.ca,</b></div>
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<b>FOR RAPID FORWARDING BY CLERKS<br />TO APPROPRIATE PUBLIC-SAFETY AUTHORITIES</b></div>
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On 2018-08-07 (TUE), around 12:20 EDT or 12:30 EDT or 12:40 EDT, a team of artists finished installing a decoration in the rose garden of the Richmond Hill Public Library Main Branch, in Ontario. </div>
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I discussed the hazard with the artists in a friendly way during their installation, which I stumbled upon through sheer accident (having taken my mid-day coffee into the Library rose garden). Pretty much as soon as the installation was complete and the artists gone, I went out again, inspecting the installation carefully to confirm my suspicions. </div>
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The installation is a device which on a casual glance resembles a telescope, but in fact is identical to a classic kaleidoscope except in lacking the classic kaleidoscope's moving beads. Upon sighting through the eyepiece end one encounters, as with a classic kaleidoscope, a set of mirrors, producing multiple reflections. The view through the eyepiece is beautiful. Still more beautiful is the exterior of the installation - finished, as it is, in oxydized, partly torch-treated, copper, and in black matte-or-similar stainless steel, with an emblematic open book (worked in copper) on its pedestal. </div>
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At the sky end of the device is a converging lens of short focal length. Between the lens and the ocular end (the end opposite the sky end) are one or more diffusing screens. </div>
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Dangerously, the device is free to move through 360 degrees of azimuth, and to be pointed up to an altitude of very roughly 45 degrees. </div>
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The danger scenario is the following: <i>Some child, on some sunny morning or some sunny afternoon, when the sun is rather low in the sky and yet clear of nearby treetops, takes the device to be a telescope and points it to the Sun. The child does not sustain dramatic retinal burns, since (1) the converging lens at the sky end is of short focal length (surely bringing incoming parallel solar rays to a point far in front of the child's eye, rather than to a point within or near the eye), and (2) interposed between the converging lens and the child's retina are one or more diffusing screens. Nevertheless, the child sustains mild retinal burns, as a child might on staring at the Sun for a while through a piece of tissue paper or Kleenex. </i></div>
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The danger scenario can be blocked (as I pointed out in a friendly way to the artists) by installing restraints, in peg form, preventing the device from moving through a full 360 degrees of azimuth. If the device were allowed to move in azimuth only within 20 or so degrees on either side of North, the danger would be gone, and the artistic integrity of the installation - I reiterate that it is of quite breathtaking beauty - would be unimpaired. </div>
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I gather from the artists that this installation has cost the Town about 7,000 CAD. This is in my judgement money correctly spent. But where were the Town officials who are paid by us, the residents, to consider public safety? The artists told me the Town had been worried about the mechanical integrity of the mounting, fearing that the installation tube could come loose and fall. Although the Town had been right to worry about this (and the worry, as I saw, was duly addressed, with the wielding of a formidable spanner at installation time), the Town seems to have neglected the bigger, purely ophthalmological, problem. </div>
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<b><i>TOWN: I recommend your replying via the standard </i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>blogspot</u></span><i> reply interface, so that full public transparency is maintained. My blogging-comment rules, as laid out here in 2006 April, would be adequately met by a reply giving the name of the replying official, and an e-mail address for him or her, and the simple phrase "writing from Town of Richmond Hill, Ontario". </i></b><br />
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<b>UPDATE: </b>At UTC=20180807T1902Z, Clerks wrote me as follows: <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"></span><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">/.../ </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">your concerns as detailed in your email /.../ have been forwarded to senior staff at the Public Library and the Town.</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">UPDATE:</span></b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> Around UTC=</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">20180808T160740Z, I wrote again to Clerks, as follows: </span></span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>Coordinated Universal Time (= UTC = EST+5 = EDT+4): 20180808T160740Z<br /><br /><br />Dear Clerks, with subsequent cc to my blog: <br /><br /><br />I
have now updated http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com with a photo of the
problematic artwork at the Richmond Hill Public Library (the subject of
our correspondence yesterday, and of a blog posting yesterday under
heading "MUNICIPAL ADVISORY: child hazard at Richmond Hill Public
Library (telescope-like device capable of pointing to Sun)"). <br /><br />On
brooding over this problem at lunch time today, I suddenly notice two
things which i should have noticed yesterday, but failed to notice then:<br /><br />(1)
Since the converging lens at the sky end of the tube is of short focal
length, and since there seems to be a diffusing screen just behind the
lens, there is some danger that the lens could, when pointed at the Sun,
form a (in ray-optics terminology "real and inverted") image of the
solar disk inside the tube, close to its presumed internal diffusing
screen. If the lens-screen distance is within a millimetre or two of the
lens's focal length, the consequent concentration of light on the
diffusing screen will be high enough to raise its temperature, possibly
to the point of combustion. The design of the device therefore needs to
be checked. It will be necessary for the Town to learn the focal length
of the lens, AND the lens-screen distance, and to check that the
distances are safely far from equal. - Admittedly, if the device can be
prevented from pointing to the Sun, with the azimuth-pegging solution I
proposed to the Town yesterday (allowing the device to move in azimuth
("left-right", as opposed to "up-down") only within plusminus 20 degrees
or so of North), rays from the Sun will never be parallel to the tube,
and the combustion scenario will be blocked.<br /><br />(2) On asking myself
today (I should have thought of this yesterday) how the problem plays
out in Ward terms, I note to my sudden grief that the problem sits in
the ward of Councillor Cilevitz. I don't quite now where this leaves us.
Perhaps the Councillor will want to reach out to me, taking this
problem in the Town as an opportunity for the meeting which she owes me?
- If it helps the Clerks, do please note (a) that I continue to request
a meeting with Councillor Cilevitz, in my capacity as a resident of
Richmond Hill, as I have already long been requesting; and (b) that the
Councillor is formally required to grant my request, since she does meet
with other residents of Richmond Hill, and since her oath of office
formally commits her to impartiality. <br /><br />I might further note (c)
that I now, without referring SPECIFICALLY to the Cilevitz-Karmo 2014
out-of-court settlement, in GENERAL terms deprecate the idea of civil
litigants settling their cases out of court. My legal reasoning for this
deprecatory stand is the reasoning set out by jurist Dame Hazel Genn in
her 2009 Hamlyn Lectures, to which I refer at
<a href="http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/GNOC____20140505__settlement_schedule_c.pdf">http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/GNOC____20140505__settlement_schedule_c.pdf</a>.<span class="sewi36fqz9eqe36"></span><span class="sewi36fqz9eqe36"></span> <br /><br />I
would respectfully submit to Clerks that whatever the general merits or
general demerits of out-of-court settlements in general jurisprudence,
at any rate points "(a)" and "(b)" cannot be undermined by my
out-of-court settlement with Ms Cilevitz, and that in general no
out-of-court settlement can be used by any Councillor in any
municipality as a reason for evading formal oath-of-office obligations
(including the obligation to meet with any resident requesting a
meeting). <br /><br />Perhaps you could tersely acknowledge receipt of this
e-mail, and in your receipt assure me that you are doing what you in
legal and moral propriety are ABLE to do in the matter of Cnclr
Cilevitz? I do note that you may not be able to do very much, and that I
will therefore have to exercise restraint, good humour, and tolerance
in this particular aspect of the Library-safety casework. <br /><br /><br />Sincerely,<br /><br /><br />Toomas Karmo<br /><br />86 Crosby Avenue - 647-267-9566 </b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">UPDATE:</span> </b><span style="font-family: inherit;">At UTC=20180808T1740Z, an official with Community Services, Parks and Recreation, Town of Richmond Hill, sent me a mail with the following key passage: </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><b>The artist will be making alterations to the installation to address the possibility of someone looking directly at the sun, through the kaleidoscope. </b></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>Signage is in place reminding visitors to keep safety top of mind while they interact with the installation.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I replied as follows, raising the idea of a high-precision sundial in our current public-art context:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">UNIVERSAL COORDINATED TIME ( = EDT + 04h00 = EST + 05h00): 20180809T1447Z</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Dear Ms ((REDACTED)), with also cc to </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com&source=gmail&ust=1533913720608000&usg=AFQjCNGuFjoqFrIVwwDpjQxF16GD7rekHw" href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/" rel="noreferrer" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; text-align: start;" target="_blank">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.<wbr></wbr>com</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Thanks so much for your briefing. The Town and its library have taken</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">appropriate steps.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">It is a pity that this exceptionally fine piece of creative metalwork</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">is leaving the Library after the end of September.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">i would therefore like to suggest now, in a respectful civic spirit,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">that thought be given to some eventual PERMANENT</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">installation in the Library rose garden, along the same general aesthetic lines.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">One idea that particularly comes to mind involves a high-precision</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">sundial. Low-precision sundials abound.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">We have one at the David Dunlap Observatory, where I worked from</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">2006-11-15 to 2008-07-02. High-precision</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">sundials, however, are rare. As a kid, I did construct one in</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">cardboard, following instructions from the _Scientific</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">American_ from around 1963. I think my device was good to plus-minus</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">five minutes. Might a high-precision</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">sundial some day be worked in brass and steel by these same artists?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">A five-minute precision, although more</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">impressive than what it achieved by the typical garden instrument</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">(such as at DDO), is still not impressive.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">It is theoretically possible to achieve something better than</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">plus-minus one **SECOND** (with respect to</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">official civil time, not merely with respect to Local Mean Solar</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Time), if the device</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">incorporates setting screws that are adjusted by an engineer every</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">time the Bureau international des Poids</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">et Mesures, in Paris, tweaks official civil time by proclaiming a "leap second"</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">(an unpredictable Paris event that tends to occur</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">not every year, but occurs perhaps once or twice every decade).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">A high-precision sundial, somewhere in the Richmond Hill parks and</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">library system, would put Richmond Hill</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">onto the map internationally - the tighter the attained precision, the</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">more prominently onto the global map.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">If you are inclined to pursue this line of thinking at some future</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">time, you can continue to reach me as</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><a href="mailto:Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; text-align: start;">Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> (although from 2018-10-31 or so</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">I am liable to be physically at the dark-sky compound of Tartu</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Observatory, in Estonia). A key local contact person, I would imagine staying</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">here in Richmond Hill over coming years, is Dr Ian Shelton</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">(DDO Defenders). He for his part would ideally establish a liaison</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">with the scientifically best-trained</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">member of the former daytime DDO engineering crew - an electronics</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">specialist who, being also</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">mechanics-literate, would be able to exercise the necessary</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">supervision on machining within the</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">atelier of the actual artists (checking tolerances with vernier</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">calipers or micrometer, etc etc).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">It occurs to me this morning, as I continue worrying about that source</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">of intermittent municipal angst</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">which is Councillor Cilevitz, and in whose Ward the current</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">kaleidoscope-styed artwork happens</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">to my alarm to sit, that Ms Cilevitz could take this sundial idea on, working</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">closely with Dr Shelton. Although she may be upset if I</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">write to her directly, you could forward this present letter to her,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">asking her for her views.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">I also note that the artists, having demonstrated their skill in</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">metals, might now profitably</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">consider commissions for the PRIVATE sector, by making custom</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">mid-tower and full-tower</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">gaming-class computer cases, in a "Steampunk" aesthetic. This has</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">already been done, somewhere</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">in the world. But perhaps these artists could take the idea further.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Had I 8,000 CAD to expend, I would myself</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">commission such a computer case, specifying black glass, black steel,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">and patina copper,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">in Full Tower, and on the thermal-engineering side demanding water</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">cooling of CPU and GPU,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">with external flow gauge and external water-temperature gauge! ;-) :-)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">I add as an Appendix to this e-mail a slab of prose from my 2003</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">environmentalist manifesto,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">"Utopia 2184", laying out my own fantasy of a high-precision sundial</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">(set, for narrative reasons,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">in the Kentish countryside of 2184, with Saint Thomas More serving as</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">an interlocutor and guide).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">My treatment of precession in the Appendix is not necessarily</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">accurate, though the essence is</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">okay. (Perhaps I err in implying a requirement for precession</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">correction in the first-order</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">terms of the overall precession equation? I can't get my head around</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">the problem right now.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Still, it is correct that SOME precession correction is required, with</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">respect to at least the</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">HIGHER-order terms. Some prof ought to set this as a problem in a</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">"Problem Set", as in what</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">I recall was the UofT AST225H course.)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Perhaps you could also convey this letter to the artists, with my</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">regards and good wishes?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Sincerely,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Toomas Karmo</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">((APPENDIX</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">SOURCE="</span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.metascientia.com/PNNN____lit/BXPI____utopia__chap02.html&source=gmail&ust=1533913720609000&usg=AFQjCNFQZaCVA6nNL3K9qCoFOgXuT-oRZg" href="http://www.metascientia.com/PNNN____lit/BXPI____utopia__chap02.html" rel="noreferrer" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; text-align: start;" target="_blank">http://www.<wbr></wbr>metascientia.com/PNNN____lit/<wbr></wbr>BXPI____utopia__chap02.html</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">"))</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Ahead of us lay a steadily widening patch of daylight,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">the far end of the Yew Walk. England! - with the sun</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">bright now, and the Saint conversing easily in my own</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">debased English, as though cheerful enough to shed</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">the brocaded encumbrances of high Tudor idiom. As for</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">those other brocaded encumbrances: while he kept his</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Holbein robes, they fitted him well in that</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">subtropical heat, as black and flowing robes</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">befit some solemn prince in the shimmering sands of Dubai.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">'You really must start,' said he - we emerged now from</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">yews onto a fine open lawn - 'with a look at the Dial.' This</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">was most unexpected. Did he mean the dial of a television receiver?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">But in a moment his meaning was plain, as we followed</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">the paving through severely trimmed herbs up the</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">steps on a low terrace. (A scent of sandalwood mingled</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">there with the English propriety of Lavandula angustifolia.) The</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">'Dial' was a dial in a sense Newton, or even Erasmus, would have</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">grasped, a sundial. And verily a sundial worthy of the practical</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">astronomer's art, a towering instrument in black glass and fine metals,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">with many a pivot, many an adjustable parameter. 'The year we set</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">here, and here the month, and here the day,' remarked the Saint,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">pointing to small, exact wheels. The year I knew without requiring further</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">instruction, through the same kindly inward light that told me it</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">was the Feast of Benedict. In a moment,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">then, I had turned the yearscrew to 2184, the month to 07, the day to 11.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The yearscrew! A great, exquisite brass worm, the first in a train,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">its finely pitched thread ultimately slewing the base of the</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">two-metre-high mechanism ever so slightly on altitude</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">and azimuth axes to compensate correctly for year-to-year precession.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Precession, I should perhaps add here - all Observatory people</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">everywhere and in all seasons show off - is that slow, stately gyration</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">of Earth's axis that makes celestial bodies shift their apparent</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">positions in our sky, for instance shifting the Sun's spring equatorial</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">crossing-point by on the order of fifty seconds of arc each twelvemonth,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">as the celestial poles ever-so-slowly circle the ecliptic poles.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The effect is, although tiny, relentless. Thanks to precession, native North</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Americans living 4000 years before Christ beheld the Southern</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Cross from North Dakota. Thanks to precession, whatever humans</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">may ponder the skies in Anno Domini 16000 are destined to find not Polaris,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">but Vega, marking the approximate location of the North Celestial Pole.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The precession circle repeats itself (or more accurately, comes close</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">to repeating itself) every 25,770 years, and I was much gratified to note</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">that the Dial was built with a sufficiently ample worm, and sufficient play in</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">its foundation mounting, to cover a generous quarter or third of that</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">immense period. If I recall correctly, the gear train allowed even for a</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">few of the more obscure of the ten or so terms in the full precession equation</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">(those are terms making it only reasonably, not fully, accurate to describe</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">precession as a tidy circular movement in the celestial poles):</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">a small regular nutation, or "nodding", in Earth's axis,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">and a steady secular, nonreversing, tidal drag exerted by the Moon,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">come dimly to mind.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The work of the second and third wheels was less dramatic,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">more homely. Their joint action caused the sunlight to pass through</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">the appropriate short segment, hardly more than a pinhole, from a</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">long and judiciously sinuous slit. This little sliver of sunlight, duly</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">selected for the given month and day, in turn fell upon a black-glass plane</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">ruled in silver with curving hour, minute, and second lines. The</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">spacing of those curves</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">was evidently varied so as for any selected day firstly to reduce</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">local apparent solar</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">time to Local Mean (solar) Time - that's LMT, the time told by a fictitious</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Sun that crawls along the equator instead of the ecliptic, and consequently</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">puts an unvarying twenty-four hours between each pair of adjacent noons -</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">and secondly to convert the LMT of that particular longitude to the LMT</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">of the zero meridian. (That's the meridian through Greenwich. The</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">French once did their best to refer the zero to Paris, but of course</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Britannia rules.)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Well, as I say, Observatory people do show off when they get the chance.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Both of us stared, entranced, grinning schoolboys once again,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">as we beheld the tiny sunlight sliver creep</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">forward on the fine black plate: 14:56:56, 14:56:57, 14:56:58.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">((/APPENDIX))</span></b></span><br />
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Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-54821311284282808752018-07-03T13:09:00.000-07:002018-09-12T08:10:59.539-07:00Reconciliation with Councillor Cilevitz Sought for Week Ending 2018-07-07<u><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>Revision history:</b></span></u><br />
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<li><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">20180723T2003Z/version 4.0.0: Kmo updated Section 3, quite a few days later than he had originally intended. </span></span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">20180705T2150Z/version 3.0.0: Kmo updated Sectoin 2, to document the situation as at UTC=20180705T2150Z. </span></span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">20180704T2132Z/version 2.0.0: Kmo updated Section 2, to document the situation as at UTC=</span></span></b><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">20180704T211412Z.</span></span></b></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>20180704T0203Z/version 1.0.1: Kmo corrected an unfortunate typo (changing the erroneous "2017-07-03" in the "NOW THEREFORE" paragraph to the correct "2018-07-03", and retransmitting his e-mail to </b></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>clerks@richmondhill.ca</u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">, <span style="font-family: inherit;">again</span> </span></span>with cc to <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">920@yrp.ca</span></u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">).</span></span></b></span> </b></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>20180703T2008Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo, having just e-mailed <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>clerks@richmondhill.ca </u></span>with cc to <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">920@yrp.ca,</span></u> uploaded a complete section "1." , with stubs for the remaining sections. </b></span></li>
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1. Letter to Clerks in Town of Richmond Hill, with Also General <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogspot</span></u> Dissemination</h2>
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<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Coordinated Universal Time (= UTC = EST+5 = EDT+4): 20180703T200418Z</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">TO: <br />clerks@richmondhill.ca </span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">CC: </span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">920@yrp.ca </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">FROM: </span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Toomas Karmo = Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com </span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(with effect from 2018-07-01 <br />residing at 86 Crosby Avenue, Richmond Hill L4C 2R2; </span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">cellphone is unchanged, continuing to be 647-267-9566) </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">RE: requesting Clerks' assistance w/Cnclr K.Cilevitz casework </span></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">********</span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<u><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A. Preliminary Remark</span></b></u><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Although I am writing on a rather small municipal matter, I nevertheless find it convenient to use here the "WHEREAS...AND WHEREAS" and "NOW THEREFORE" format sometimes used in large municipal matters. </span></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>B. The Body of My Letter</u></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">WHEREAS</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<ul>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Councillor Cilevitz and I agree on the importance of free public speech<br /><br />AND WHEREAS</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">the Town and I jointly reinforced free-speech precedents on 2014-12-01 (MON), when I attended, unimpeded, and with plainclothes police protection, the social portion of the Town Council inaugural meeting, with flyers and placard in protest against the impending destruction of 32 out of the total 76.5 David Dunlap Observatory and Park greenspace hectares (therein opposing the pro-subdivision position of Councillor Cilevitz) <br /><br />AND WHEREAS</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I have been placed under some personal-communications restrictions in a 2014 out-of-court settlement with Karen Cilevitz, in 2014 casework detailed at my sites <a href="http://www.karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/">http://www.karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/</a> and <a href="http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/">http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/</a><br /><br />AND WHEREAS</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">my two principal previous efforts, in the 2016 summer and the 2018 spring, at effecting a personal reconciliation with Councillor Cilevitz have been unsuccessful<br /><br />AND WHEREAS</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Councillor Cilevitz is now the subject of a public dispute, or public controversy, involving local music-industry figures Mr Matthew Bergman and Ms Steffi Goodfield<br /><br />AND WHEREAS </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">the controversy offers a fresh opportunity for a reconciliation between Councillor Cilevitz and me, as I alert the public to deficiencies in some media coverage of the dispute or controversy<br /><br />AND WHEREAS</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">no out-of-court settlement - and in particular, not the 2014 out-of-court settlement between Councillor Cilevitz and me, on whose specific terms I herewith make no commentary - can undercut citizens' rights to civic participation, including the right to interview Councillors of their municipalities <br /><br />AND WHEREAS</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">on 2018-06-20 I had a 1h22m phone chat with Mr Matthew Bergman, in which he has put his side of the case to me<br /><br />AND WHEREAS</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">it is ethically correct to balance this 2018-06-20 chat with Mr Bergman by having a corresponding chat with Councillor Cilevitz, in which she puts her side of the case to me, and in so doing additionally explores with me the possibilities of a personal reconciliation between her and me<br /><br />AND WHEREAS</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Councillor Cilevitz declared her willingness to chat with the public on the controversy, in her Facebook posting of 2018-05-31 (using for her declaration the wording "</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Should anyone have any questions or concerns regarding this matter, I
invite you to contact me personally to have that discussion")<br /><br />AND WHEREAS </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I now seek a chat of at least 5 minutes' duration, face to face, in the evening (at any time from 5:00 p.m. onward) of 2018-07-05 (THU), in the morning or afternoon or evening of 2018-07-06 (FRI), or in the morning of 2018-07-07 (SAT), with permission to operate my voice recorder, and with permission to use my voice recording in any way that may at any time seem appropriate to me - letting Councillor Cilevitz tell her side of the story in any way she pleases, to balance the account I received from Mr Bergman in our 2018-06-20 1h22m phone chat <br /><br />AND WHEREAS</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I additionally seek in our envisaged chat to put the following four questions to Councillor Cilevitz: <br /><br />(1) Has she directed the Richmond Hill bylaw enforcement authorities to action in respect of any person or business connected with the entertainment or hospitality industry? <br /><br />(2) Is she willing to affirm to me privately my civic right to attend her "Ward 5 Music Festival" municipal event of 2018-07-07 (SAT) in Mount Pleasant Park, and to affirm to me privately my civic right in the course of my attendance to carry chest and back placards worded "COMMENT ABOUT MEDIA", and to affirm to me privately my civic right in the course of my attendance to hand out flyers headed "COMMENT ABOUT MEDIA" bearing the approximate text of the "APPENDIX" to this e-mail?<br /><br />(3) Can Councillor Cilevitz suggest any improvements in the draft text shown in my "APPENDIX"? <br /><br />(4) Does Councillor Cilevitz, while recognizing that there can legally be no ban on communications between the two of us in her Town-official capacity, now join me in an additional willingness to lift the ban on communications in her private-citizen capacity, thereby effecting a personal reconciliation between us? </span></b></li>
</ul>
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">NOW THEREFORE <br /><br /><br />I respectfully ask Clerks to convey the substance of this letter in some way or other to Councillor Cilevitz (for example, by referring her in e-mail to my 201<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">8</span>-07-03 </span><u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogspot</span></u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> posting, which displays the text of this same e-mail; or by referring her through a phone call to my 201<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">8</span>-07-03 <u>blogspot</u> posting; or by directly forwarding this e-mail to her),and to confirm for me in a short e-mail that they have in some way or other conveyed the substance to her. </span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<u><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">C. Concluding Remark</span></b></u><br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">It would be appropriate for me to receive a response by the late afternoon of 2018-07-04 (WED), either from Clerks or directly from Councillor Cilevitz, in one of the following three logically possible forms: </span></b><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">No; contrary to your own professed belief, Dr Karmo, Councillor Cilevitz is under no obligation to grant an interview to you, and indeed declines to grant an interview. The legal reasoning supporting the Town's finding of "no obligation" (Councillor Cilevitz's municipal Oath of Office and the Town's municipal Code of Conduct notwithstanding) is the following: [[[[some reasoning here]]]]</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Sorry; nobody at the Town can transmit a reply to you by the late afternoon of 2018-07-04 (WED). Please anticipate a somewhat delayed response, on or before [[[[date here]]]]. </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Yes, short interview granted: please attend at [[[[time here]]]], at [[[[place]]]]. </span></b></li>
</ol>
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<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(signed) TK </span></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><u>APPENDIX: Draft of Flyer for Public Distribution 2018-07-07</u></span></b><br />
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<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">((DRAFT)) <br />It is my civic duty to alert the public to deficiencies in the media coverage of a dispute (a controversy) involving Councillor Karen Cilevitz. </span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(1) The Richmond
Hill <u>Liberal</u>, at
<a href="https://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/8679645-richmond-hill-councillor-karen-cilevitz-demands-apology-retraction/">https://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/8679645-richmond-hill-councillor-karen-cilevitz-demands-apology-retraction/</a>
(dateline 2018-06-19, headline "Richmond Hill councillor Karen Cilevitz demands apology, retraction: Thornhill musician says councillor harassed vulnerable people", byline "Kim Zarzour")
errs in discussing previous coverage. The most significant error is the <u>Liberal</u>'s failure to supply readers, in the course of its discussion of previous coverage, with a link to
the most pertinent piece of previous coverage - namely, to the YouTube
(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBzt5jfE3zY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBzt5jfE3zY</a>) upload of 2018-06-08, by YouTube user "Rebel Media", under headline "Ward 5 Councillor's 'threats' to shut down musical acts baffles residents". The omission is significant because this particular coverage, unlike other coverage to which the <u>Liberal</u> does refer, explores by-law enforcement, raising a question of abuse of municipal power (to which
the Councillor replies, in her remarks to the reporter, that there has been no abuse). As of early July,
at UTC=20180703T173559Z, the "Rebel Media" YouTube upload had gained the surprisingly large
total of 18,240 views.</span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(2) Councillor Cilevitz's Facebook page, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/karencilevitz/">https://www.facebook.com/karencilevitz/</a>, has been censored by someone, with incoming comments critical of the Councillor systematically, again and again, deleted soon after the server began displaying them (as I myself document, with screenshots, at <a href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/06/public-service-posting-facebook.html">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/06/public-service-posting-facebook.html</a> (comment of 2018-06-05, headed "PUBLIC-SERVICE POSTING: Facebook operations of Town Councillor Karen Cilevitz")).</span></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">An unfettered press is one of the bulwarks of Ontario's liberties. </span></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Respectfully, </span></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Toomas Karmo <span style="font-size: xx-small;">((((Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com; 647-267-9566; I perform my ethical duty to disclose personals, by citing the my two pertinent Web sites (illuminating Cilevitz 2014 legals): <a href="http://www.karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/">http://www.karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/</a>, <a href="http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/">http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/</a>))))</span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">((/DRAFT)) </span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<h2>
2. Response from Councillor Cilevitz's Side </h2>
[Situation reports are arranged in reverse chronological order, i.e., with most recent report at the beginning rather than at the end.]<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><i><u>(2) Situation as at UTC=20180705T215000Z:</u></i></b><br />
<br />
Mail received from an official at Clerks, from UTC=20180705T1701Z, indicating that Clerks communicated my case to Councillor Cilevitz 2018-07-04 (WED), and that this official is ((QUOTE)) in the process of following-up((/QUOTE)) on my e-mail, and that this official will communicate an update to me upon receiving ((QUOTE))a reply from the Councillor((/QUOTE)).<br />
<br />
I replied to this official as follows, copying also Mayor and Council and Sergeant Chris Palmer:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b>Coordinated Universal Time (= UTC = EST+5 = EDT+4): 20180704T215000Z</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b>Dear ((REDACTED WHAT="name of official")),</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b>with cc Mayor and Council, and Sergeant Chris Palmer,</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b>and with posting to http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com with your name redacted:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b>Thanks very much. I am quite sure you have now done all that is presently in your power. I am now **NOT** left with any reason for distrusting Clerks, and a fortiori am **NOT** left with any reason for filing a complaint at the Ombudsman's office. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b>As you work on Councillor Cilevitz's file, the following fresh points may be of some help:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b>(a) I have today had a reasonably detailed chat, to a length of around 00h20m or 00h30m, with an individual, "ABCD", who has at least some inside knowledge of the Councillor Cilevitz file, and who has at least some level of personal sympathy for Councillor Cilevitz. On the strength of ABCD's various pieces of advice to me, I am now not at all certain that I should be distributing flyers at the 2018-07-07 (SAT) Ward 5 municipal event. My reasoning is now that in distributing flyers, I might be making myself the unwitting pawn of a faction in Richmond Hill which wishes Councillor Cilevitz misfortune, and which has in ABCD's private estimation additionally shown some tendency toward intemperate action.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b>(b) In view of today's reasonably detailed chat with ABCD, it becomes all the more important for me to have an interview with Councillor Cilevitz, with my voice recorder running. The Councillor may well have some argument for me establishing that my envisaged 2018-07-07 distribution of flyers would be unwise, as tending to assist an intemperate faction in our community without significantly tending to improve our community newspaper. Until I have such an interview, I cannot decide confidently either for or against flyer distribution.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b>My monitoring of e-mails tomorrow, 2018-07-06 (FRI), may be unreliable, as I continue working on a move from 406 Centre Street East (L4C 1B7) to 86 Crosby Avenue (L4C 2R2). On the other hand, I **COULD** interrupt my work on the move for 40, 80, or 150 minutes to attend to something as important as an interview with the Councillor. It would therefore be advisable for the Councillor or you to phone me as appropriate, on my usual number (647-267-9566), in place of relying on e-mail. You could always send me an e-mail also, for the formal record, secure in the assurance that I would be able to read it by 2018-07-09 (MON), perhaps without being able to read it as early as 2018-07-06 (FRI). </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b>Sincerely,</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><b>Toomas Karmo</b></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<u><b><i>(1) Situation as at UTC=<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">20180704T211412Z</span></span>:</i></b></u><br />
<br />
Transmitted following to Mayor and Council, as <br />
<b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">officemayor@richmondhill.ca, vito.spatafora@richmondhill.ca, brenda.hogg@richmondhill.ca, greg@gregberos.com, tom.muench@richmondhill.ca, castro.liu@richmondhill.ca, david.west@richmondhill.ca, karen.cilevitz@richmondhill.ca, godwin.chan@richmondhill.ca, </span></b><br />
<br />
with cc both to <b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">clerks@richmondhill.ca</span></b> and to <b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">920@yrp.ca</span></b>:<br />
<br />
<br />
((TRANSMISSION))<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Coordinated Universal Time (= UTC = EST+5 = EDT+4): 20180704T211412Z</span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />
Dear Members of Town Council, with Office of Mayor<br />
(and with cc both to Clerks and to YRP Sergeant Chris Palmer):</span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />
In trying to effect a reconciliation with Councillor Karen Cilevitz,<br />
I sent important e-mail on 2018-07-03 (TUE) to Clerks,<br />
making my e-mail also publicly viewable at <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com&source=gmail&ust=1530825933926000&usg=AFQjCNGg0MR6JpH3iEmF_c7GdTMkRRg9dQ" href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.<wbr></wbr>com</a><br />
(in a posting of 2018-07-03, headed "Reconciliation with Councillor Cilevitz<br />
Sought for Week Ending 2018-07-07". To my surprise, Clerks have<br />
not responded to my mail, even though they know it is their<br />
formal duty to respond, and even though they know I have had<br />
success in the past at the Ontario Ombudsman's office, in<br />
resolving casework in which Clerks appeared negligent in<br />
correspondence formalities. I have asked Clerks to respond<br />
on 2018-07-05 (THU).</span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />
Any suggestions or advice from any of you would now be<br />
useful, as I seek to avoid an escalation to Ombudsman<br />
on 2018-07-06 (FRI).</span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />
Sincerely,</span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />
Toomas Karmo</span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />
---------- Forwarded message ----------<br />
From: Toomas Karmo <<a href="mailto:toomas.karmo@gmail.com">toomas.karmo@gmail.com</a>><br />
Date: Wed, Jul 4, 2018 at 5:13 PM<br />
Subject: Clerks: seeking yr response to my mailing of 2018-07-03 (TUE)<br />
To: clerks <<a href="mailto:clerks@richmondhill.ca">clerks@richmondhill.ca</a>><br />
Cc: "Toomas.Karmo" <<a href="mailto:Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com">Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com</a>></span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />
Coordinated Universal Time (= UTC = EST+5 = EDT+4): 20180704T210544Z</span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />
Dear Clerks,</span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />
I e-mailed you twice yesterday. 2018-07-03 (TUE) on the same matter,<br />
once in the afternoon and once in the evening. The second mailing,<br />
copied below, corrected a typo in the first mailing.</span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />
It is now just after 5:00 p.m., and to my surprise I have received no<br />
response to yesterday's e-mails. Could you respond, please, at some<br />
point on 2018-07-05 (THU)? I will be away from my computer for part of<br />
that day, but will nevertheless be able to deal with correspondence<br />
intermittently - being, further, able to deal with incoming<br />
correspondence thoroughly and with full concentration toward the end<br />
of the day, perhaps around 5:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m.</span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />
Sincerely, anxiously,</span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />
Toomas Karmo<br />
647-267-9566; new municipal address, as of 2018-07-01 = 86 Crosby<br />
Avenue, Richmond Hill L4C 2R2</span></b></span><br />
((SNIP WHAT="copy of text from my 2018-07-03 e-mail submission to Clerks")) <br />
((/TRANSMISSION))<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
3. My Impressions upon Attending Councillor Cilevitz's 2018-07-07 Municipal Event</h2>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The event was not too well attended. Of the other Councillors, I saw only Mr Tom Muench (representing Ward Two; he has recently been strongly critical of his Town Council colleague Karen Cilevitz). A minor unelected public servant whom I here choose not to identify more closely remarked to me that attendance overall seemed to him to be low. I carefully replied that I had no comment to offer regarding his assessment. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
However, the total attendance cannot have been too catastrophically low, since I distributed between 100 and 120 copies of my own flyer, over six or seven hours.</div>
<br />
In its final text, the flyer read as follows:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><b>PUBLIC APPEAL TO INDIVIDUALS</b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><b>LEGALLY ABLE TO COMMUNICATE</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b></b></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"></span></b></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">WITH COUNCILLOR KAREN CILEVITZ (RICHMOND HILL, WARD 5)</span></span></span></span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">
</span></b></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>
</b></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"></span></b></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">I write as a resident of Ward 2, Richmond Hill, operating a cellular</span></span></span></span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"></span></b></span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">phone at 647-267-9566, receiving e-mails as </span><a href="mailto:Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.8px;">Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com</a><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">,</span></span></span></span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">and blogging at </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com&source=gmail&ust=1532458374361000&usg=AFQjCNEcT9OzqL4PerOBa0GGapatWTpIrg" href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/" rel="noreferrer" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.8px;" target="_blank">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.<wbr></wbr>com</a><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">. My 2014 legal</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">difficulties with Councillor Cilevitz are detailed at</span></span></span></div>
</span><div style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/&source=gmail&ust=1532458374361000&usg=AFQjCNE0YP99OwsDLZi7ZsQTR75N-6x61A" href="http://www.karen-vs-toomas-blog.ca/" rel="noreferrer" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.8px;" target="_blank">http://www.karen-vs-toomas-<wbr></wbr>blog.ca/</a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"> and</span></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/&source=gmail&ust=1532458374361000&usg=AFQjCNH1NQAQEdNZUa-XIrbB59sO3LJPLw" href="http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/" rel="noreferrer" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.8px;" target="_blank">http://www.karen-vs-toomas-<wbr></wbr>legaldocs.ca/</a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(A) I reach out to the public in my continuing efforts at effecting a</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">personal reconciliation with Councillor Cilevitz. I have been trying</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">in various ways to secure an interview with the Councillor. The Town</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Clerks did the best they could for me in the period</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">2018-07-04/2018-07-06, but were unsuccessful. Having failed with</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Clerks, I now try a different avenue. Can someone in Karen’s circle of</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">friends and colleagues clarify to her that she is obliged, as a public</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">official, to grant me a face-to-face interview, and that this</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">obligation cannot be extinguished by any out-of-court legal settlement</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">which she and I may have been signed before her 2014 election to</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">public office? (In making this legal point, and in referring obliquely</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">while making it to the fact of a 2014 out-of-court settlement between</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">the Councillor and me, I do not comment in any way on the specific</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">terms of our settlement, and indeed do not herewith quote any of its</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">specific terms. Our settlement terms, and also the commentaries</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">permitted to Karen and me, are published at</span></span></span></div>
</span><div style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/&source=gmail&ust=1532458374361000&usg=AFQjCNH1NQAQEdNZUa-XIrbB59sO3LJPLw" href="http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/" rel="noreferrer" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.8px;" target="_blank">http://www.karen-vs-toomas-<wbr></wbr>legaldocs.ca/</a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">.)</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(B) I have a civic duty not only to effect a reconciliation with</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Councillor Cilevitz but also to alert the public to deficiencies in</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">the media coverage of a recent dispute (a controversy) involving her.</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">I now explain those deficiencies.</span></span></span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(B.1) The Richmond Hill Liberal, at</span></span></span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/8679645-richmond-hill-councillor-karen-cilevitz-demands-apology-retraction/&source=gmail&ust=1532458374362000&usg=AFQjCNH_my-BE38HiQkNCz2bLnWY1JZeFA" href="https://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/8679645-richmond-hill-councillor-karen-cilevitz-demands-apology-retraction/" rel="noreferrer" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.8px;" target="_blank">https://www.yorkregion.com/<wbr></wbr>news-story/8679645-richmond-<wbr></wbr>hill-councillor-karen-<wbr></wbr>cilevitz-demands-apology-<wbr></wbr>retraction/</a></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(dateline 2018-06-19, headline “Richmond Hill councillor Karen</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Cilevitz demands apology, retraction: Thornhill musician says</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">councillor harassed vulnerable people”, byline “Kim Zarzour”) errs in</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">its discussion of previous coverage. The most significant error is the</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Liberal’s failure to supply readers, in the course of its discussion</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">of previous coverage, with a link to the most pertinent piece of</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">previous coverage – namely, to the YouTube</span></span></span></div>
</span><div style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DYBzt5jfE3zY&source=gmail&ust=1532458374362000&usg=AFQjCNEzG5FrsTaE02DY_7rj5rn-JasT-g" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBzt5jfE3zY" rel="noreferrer" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.8px;" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr></wbr>v=YBzt5jfE3zY</a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"> upload of 2018-06-08, by</span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">YouTube user “Rebel Media”, under headline “Ward 5 Councillor’s</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">‘threats’ to shut down musical acts baffles residents”. The omission</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">is significant because this particular coverage, unlike other coverage</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">to which the Liberal does refer, explores by-law enforcement targeting</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">within the broad entertainment-and-hospitality sector, raising a</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">question of abuse of municipal power (to which the Councillor replies,</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">in her remarks to the reporter, that there has been no abuse). As of</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">UTC=20180707T1547Z, the “Rebel Media” YouTube upload had gained the</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">surprisingly large total of 18,400 views.</span></span></span></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(B.2) Councillor Cilevitz’s Facebook page,</span></span></span></div>
</span><div style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.8px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.facebook.com/karencilevitz/&source=gmail&ust=1532458374362000&usg=AFQjCNEiutYD7bjAjPoqlEUL496zaQIY9g" href="https://www.facebook.com/karencilevitz/" rel="noreferrer" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.8px;" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/<wbr></wbr>karencilevitz/</a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;">, has been censored by someone,</span></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">with incoming comments critical of the Councillor systematically,</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">again and again, deleted soon after the server began displaying them</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(as I myself document, with screenshots, at</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/06/public-service-posting-facebook.html&source=gmail&ust=1532458374362000&usg=AFQjCNEala-3KUp3zs89qFYdvtID96dCGw" href="http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/06/public-service-posting-facebook.html" rel="noreferrer" style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 12.8px;" target="_blank">http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.<wbr></wbr>com/2018/06/public-service-<wbr></wbr>posting-facebook.html</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(comment of 2018-06-05, headed “PUBLIC-SERVICE POSTING: Facebook</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">operations of Town Councillor Karen Cilevitz”)).</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Two principal bulwarks of Ontario’s liberties are (A) access to</span></span></span></div>
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">elected representatives and (B) an unfettered press.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(signed) Dr Toomas Karmo</span></span></span></div>
</span></b></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Almost as soon as I started distributing my handout, I was interviewed by the Rebel Media camera. Perhaps we shall be lucky, and either <i>(a)</i> none of this interview will go to air or <i>(b) </i>what will go to air will escape tendentious truncation, being left long enough to preserve the true gist of what transpired. (Although I do not, in general, trust the media, I do realize that they can sometimes get things right.) </div>
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<br /></div>
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As a precaution, I at any rate set down here the true gist of the interview: </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<ul>
<li>I neither affirm nor deny that Karen is a bully, and neither affirm nor deny that our 2014 out-of-court settlement places restrictions on my use of the word 'bully' in discussing Karen. More broadly, I make no comment on the terms of the 2014 out-of-court settlement between Karen and me, and I do not engage in partial quotation of our settlement terms. Our terms can be read in full on the obvious Web site [namely - I remark here, for the benefit of <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>blogspot</b></span> readers, although I probably did not say this to the camera - <a href="http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca//">http://www.karen-vs-toomas-legaldocs.ca/</a>]. (The Rebel Media camera tried to draw me out on the overall b-word topic. Mindful of my legal position, I politely declined to be drawn.) </li>
<li>I am anxious to effect a reconciliation with Karen. (Rebel Media asked whether I would be willing to have an immediate reconciliation. I responded in some surprise by asking whether this meant a reconciliation here and now, right on camera, before remarking that yes indeed, a reconciliation here and now on camera would be fine. Having asked the question, Rebel Media then said that no on-camera reconciliation was in fact in prospect, explaining that Karen was at the given instant unwilling to chat with them.) </li>
</ul>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The best reaction from the (rather sparse?) crowds came from a person on Councillor Cilevitz's side, who told me that I was making the affair more about me than about her, and that if I were to pull back Karen might for her part become more amenable to a meeting. I obtained from this person a promise to intercede with Karen on my behalf were I to pull back. </div>
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<br /></div>
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A strong anti-Karen reaction came from a lady I did not know. She denounced Karen to me in private, vehemently. <br />
<br />
Some pro-Karen reaction came either from one sweet old lady or a pair of sweet old ladies. Those pro-Karen comments somewhat reminded me of the Canadian television series <i>Road to Avonlea</i> - it was shocking that I was so persistent (et cetera; the tone was wholesome, like the television series). </div>
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<br /></div>
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A lady from the Town Clerks argued with me that while I was within my legal rights distributing my flyer, civic protest was inappropriate in the context of a family event. Although her argument did have some force, and moreover was politely put, it was partially undermined a few minutes after our chat by the actual programme content. At that point a member of the First Nations rightly denounced, right into the official microphone, the past injustices inflicted on her community, while evidently speaking in ignorance of the 2008-through-2018 First Nations grievance regarding the loss of 32 David Dunlap Observatory and Park greenspace hectares. (The full facts here are the following: Karen, after shifting her political allegiance in or just after 2010, came to back a 14-street subdivision on 32 of the legacy 76.5 DDO&P hectares; the subdivision was strongly opposed by the (duly articulate) Mississaugas of the New Credit, who have a moral claim to be heard in the context of the Toronto Purchase, since this (unjust, exploitative, manipulative) pre-Victorian treaty embraced the 1935-through-2008 DDO&P; through the Toronto Purchase, the Mississaugas of the New Credit are in a special and distinctive legal position, in contrast with other First Nations groupings, who have only a weaker claim to speak to the DDO&P file; relations between the Mississaugas of the New Credit and Karen were in 2012 strained, as I heard with my own ears at a recess during the Ontario Municipal Board hearing.) If First Nations are right in protesting at the microphone (as they surely are, even in the context of a family event), then I for my part must analogously be right in protesting by means of a handout (even in the context of a family event).<br />
<br /></div>
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At one point in the day, an angry middle-aged male told me, without any stimulus from me, that I was to keep away from his daughter. Since this odd remark was provocative in character, I called the York Regional Police, alerting them to the possibility that an attempt was being made to tip me into autistic meltdown. The police conferred with the angry male and the above-mentioned lady from Town Clerks, outside my hearing, for what seemed to me a surprisingly long time, perhaps on the order of ten minutes. The police then told me that no report would be filed, with my call merely being entered into their daily log. This police response seemed to me appropriate.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I stayed for pretty much everything, until the end, but with perhaps 45 minutes off in the early evening. Proceedings wound down around 8:00 p.m.<br />
<br />
Although the music was for the most part not to my taste, I did enjoy what purported to be a "Cajun", or Acadian-exile, number, with vocals, and with a poignant melody line. </div>
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<b>[This is the end of the current <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogspot</span></u> posting.] </b>Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8608200033203539873.post-81547423774205133592018-06-10T19:23:00.002-07:002018-09-12T08:11:17.828-07:00The "DDO&P Conflict", 2007-09-10 to 2018-06-09 <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AMbLi8pC2Ao/Wx6E0aRaxNI/AAAAAAAAAt4/c_fIVOAohUouPo2vv4pzzgYaIG3uxR5SQCLcBGAs/s1600/ddo_rahu_montaazh.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1050" data-original-width="1400" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AMbLi8pC2Ao/Wx6E0aRaxNI/AAAAAAAAAt4/c_fIVOAohUouPo2vv4pzzgYaIG3uxR5SQCLcBGAs/s320/ddo_rahu_montaazh.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clockwise from lower right: (1) the homebrew Yagi antenna which I am to be donating to YLab at DDO, for possible use in meteor radio observations (a tape measure, extended to a length of one metre, runs parallel to the boom, and a metre stick is partially visible to the right, running perpendicular to the boom); (2) the front panel of the Westinghouse 7-valve receiver which I am to be donating to YLab, along with a detail from its back panel; (3) the DDO 1.88-metre telescope, as I photographed it on 2018-06-09 (with the 1930s Grubb-and-Parsons fabricator plaque partly visible at the bottom edge of the photo, on the south side of the south pier); (4) the 1.88-metre telescope control room, as a reminder of departed glories, from my visit of 2018-06-09 (although the joystick, for guiding starlight down the spectrograph slit, can be seen to the left of the obsolete monitor, the spectrograph controller electronics have now been dismounted from the telescope). May we hope some day, perhaps through an infusion of something like National Research Council funds, for a revival of DDO spectroscopy? - As is usual in <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>blogspot</b></span> publishing, the image can be enlarged with a left mouse-click. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><u>Quality assessment:</u></b></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><br />On
the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and
familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late,
unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and
lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr
Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr
Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby
imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku
matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of
Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy
of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so
disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and
5/5 is "excellent"): 4/5. Justification: Kmo found the time to develop the essential points to reasonable length. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><br /> <br /><u>Revision history:</u><br /> <br />All
times in these blog "revision histories" are stated in UTC (Universal
Coordinated Time/ Temps Universel Coordoné, a precisification of the
old GMT, or "Greenwich Mean Time"), in the ISO-prescribed YYYYMMDDThhmmZ
timestamping format. UTC currently leads Toronto civil time by 4 hours
(with Toronto now on summer time) and currently lags Tallinn civil time
by 2 hours (with Tallinn currently still on winter time). </b></span></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<ul>
<li><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">20180611T2142Z/version 2.2.0: Kmo added a potentially significant point, that RASC has in the past formed a contractual relationship with DDO developer Corsica. (It is this, and not the mere silence of RASC as a corporate entity, at the CRB and OMB hearings, that justifies Kmo in representing RASC as tacitly dissenting from his own conservationist position.) - Kmo reserved the right </span></b><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>to make further tiny, nonsubstantive, purely cosmetic, tweaks over
the coming 48 hours, as here-undocumented versions 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.2.3,
... . </b></span></span></b> </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">20180611T2136Z/version 2.1.0: Kmo made a correction in his criticism of RASC (fortunately managing to get this in before anyone contacted him): although RASC has not to his knowledge taken an official conservationist position, for instance by becoming a "Party" at the 2009 Conservation Review Board hearing or the 2012 and 2014 Ontario Municipal Board hearings, nevertheless individual RASC members have communicated conservationist positions to authorities, acting in their private capacity. - Kmo reserved </span></b><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>the
right to make further tiny, nonsubstantive, purely cosmetic, tweaks over
the coming 48 hours, as here-undocumented versions 2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.1.3,
... . </b></span> </span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: xx-small;">20180611T1430Z/version 2.0.0: Kmo </span></b><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>finished converting his point-form outline into full-sentences prose, and also added a graphic. He reserved the right to make further tiny, nonsubstantive, purely cosmetic, tweaks over the coming 48 hours, as here-undocumented versions 2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.0.3, ... . </b></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>20180611T0222Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo uploaded a reasonably polished
point-form outline. He hoped to finish converting this into
full-sentences prose at some point in the coming 14 hours.</b></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b> </b></span></div>
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<b>[CAUTION: A bug in the <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u>
server-side software has in some past months shown a propensity to
insert inappropriate whitespace at some points in some of my posted
essays. If a screen seems to end in empty space, keep scrolling down.
The end of the posting is not reached until the usual <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u> "Posted by Toomas (Tom) Karmo at" appears. - The <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u>
software has also shown a propensity, at any rate when coupled with my
erstwhile, out-of-date, Web-authoring uploading browser, to generate
HTML that gets formatted in different ways on different downloading
browsers. Some downloading browsers have sometimes perhaps not correctly
read in the entirety of the "Cascading Style Sheets" (CSS) which on all
ordinary Web servers control the browser placement of margins,
sidebars, and the like. If you suspect CSS problems in your particular
browser, be patient: it is probable that while some content has been
shoved into some odd place (for instance, down to the bottom of your
browser, where it ought to appear in the right-hand margin), all the
server content has been pushed down into your browser in some place or
other. - Finally, there may be <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogger</span></u>
vagaries, outside my control, in font sizing or interlinear spacing or
right-margin justification. - Anyone inclined to help with
trouble-shooting, or to of</b><b>fer other kinds of technical advice, is
welcome to write me via <u><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com</span></u>.]</b></div>
<br />
The Saturday which was 2018-06-09 proved notable for Canadian astronomy.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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On Canadian soil sit three rather hefty ships in what I like to call "God's Navy" - the Mont Mégantic observatory in Québec, the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory on Vancouver Island, and the (beleaguered) David Dunlap Observatory in Ontario. By a coincidence, two of these three had historic celebrations on the day - DAO, as part of its centenary observances (in a proceeding advertised at <a href="https://thecentreoftheuniverse.net/a-centennial-celebration">https://thecentreoftheuniverse.net/a-centennial-celebration</a>); and DDO, to mark the formal start of municipally directed public outreach, after the 1935-2008 tenure of the University of Toronto and the temporary 2009-through-2016-or-2017 arrangement between the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC; <a href="https://www.rasc.ca/">https://www.rasc.ca/</a>) and a temporary DDO owner, subdivision developer Corsica.<br />
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I do continue to censure the federal, provincial, and municipal authorities for allowing 32 hectares out of our 77-hectare legacy to be sacrificed to Corsica. The happy Saturday was, however, less a day for bemoaning what had been lost than for celebrating progress on fully four DDO fronts - as regards <i>(A)</i> the municipality (<a href="https://www.richmondhill.ca/en/david-dunlap-observatory.aspx">https://www.richmondhill.ca/en/david-dunlap-observatory.aspx</a>), <i>(B) </i>the "YLab" (<a href="http://www.ylab.ca/">http://www.ylab.ca</a>) citizen-engineering makerspace, <i>(C)</i> RASC (for citizen science), and <i>(D)</i> the David Dunlap Observatory Defenders (DDOD, again for citizen science; <a href="http://www.ddod.ca/">http://www.ddod.ca/</a>). <br />
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<i>(A)</i> It was constructive of Mayor David Barrow to begin his remarks by citing the aboriginal First Nations, as the ancient tenants of the DDO terrain.<br />
<br />
It was additionally constructive of Mayor Barrow to have used - as perhaps the first significant municipal officer, for perhaps the first time in my hearing, from any municipal microphone - the fully correct legal terminology for the terrain, as laid out in Jessie Donalda Dunlap's 1930s Deed of Indenture: what we are herewith conserving (now, all will admit, with a mix of success and failure) is in the prescriptive language of Mrs Dunlap's Deed the "David Dunlap Observatory and Park".<br />
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<i>(B)</i> YLab opened their DDO Adminstration-Building rooms to the public, demonstrating how solid a base they have already established for "citizen-engineering" outreach. Presently at their disposal are at least two of the four big legacy DDO workshops. (In the decades leading up to the unhappy 2008 change in DDO ownership, the basement housed optics, metalworking, and woodworking. On the Administration Building upper level was a big electronics room, with a slate-topped table that eventually got removed, I presume during the University of Toronto's 2008 sale.)<br />
<br />
YLab have already made a beginning in fabrication, deploying not only three 3-D printers, but also a laser cutter similar to the big laser cutter which I have myself viewed in Toronto's HackLab (<a href="https://hacklab.to/">https://hacklab.to/</a>). Further, YLab have made a beginning in amateur radio, notably by already, in so short a time, helping eight or so school pupils qualify with Industry Canada for their amateur-radio operating licences.<br />
<br />
On the equipment side, I saw a couple of transceivers for HF (with appropriate power supplies), as well as a VHF-or-UHF handheld.<br />
<br />
It was a "Eureka" moment to see YLab deploying a UHF Yagi antenna whose boom-mounted elements were judiciously cut from that most convenient of metals, a tape measure!<br />
<br />
Also noteworthy in my visit to the DDO YLab rooms was an imposing AF signal generator, capable of high peak-to-peak voltage swings (if I recall accurately, on the order of tens of kilovolts). This hefty box had been donated from the surplus stocks of the University of Toronto Department of Physics.<br />
<br />
Mindful of YLab's demonstrated technological solidity, I immediately entered into an agreement to donate to them two minor items from my own surplus stocks:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>I am to be giving to YLab a Yagi antenna, with wooden boom, and with metal wiring on wooden crosspieces as its active element, its reflector, and its (sole) director. The antenna feeds into twin-lead. Its elements are cut for the FM-broadcast frequency of 90.7 MHz. A Toronto radio restorator, "XYZ", and I had a few years ago put this bulky thing together for investigating ionization trails of meteors, with a particular view to such showers as the Perseids. (Our method was simple: you feed the Yagi into your ordinary humble consumer-electronics FM rig, and then you try to establish that you are hearing - for just a few seconds in each fleeting instance - stations too far from Toronto to be plausibly received except through bounces off meteor ionization trails. XYZ and I did catch a few distant (USA) FM broadcasters at a time presumed specially rich in meteors. However, we did not embark on a properly systematic mluti-day, multi-week radio observing campaign, such as would now seem appropriate at DDO.)</li>
<li>I am to be giving YLab a Westinghouse 7-valve (7-"tube") AM-FM monaural 1950s or 1960s tabletop radio, with model specification H86<i>n</i>N7, for some value of <i>n</i> in the set {0, 1, 2, 3}. This set is in wooden cabinetry - with the exact, but to me unknown, value of <i>n</i> corresponding to what the old Westinghouse marketers were pleased to call, respectively, "traditional mahogany", "colonial maple", "contemporary walnut", "provincial fruitwood". I guess what I have to offer YLab is not "colonial maple", and so does not correspond to <i>n </i>= 1. But given some degree of imagination, and some accompanying mental vagueness regarding fine cabinetry, my set could conceivably be held to correspond to any one of <i>n</i> = 0, 2, 3. - The design is of a quality arguably occupying the boundary between an upmarket postwar kitchen radio and a downmarket postwar hi-fi radio. The dial does now need restringing, I suppose with something like fishing line now going into its interior pulley. Further, noise which has developed in the last few years suggests that at least one electrolytic capacitor is now failing. (I have had the set since rescuing it from York University garbage in 1989 or 1990 or 1991. It sounded fine until just two or three or so years ago.) - Once restored, this set might perhaps be a suitable companion for the just-mentioned Yagi, in the just-mentioned investigation of meteors. - Readers should note that YLab are interested in receiving still more valve receivers from the general public, as their team works to hone its skills in radio restoration. </li>
</ul>
I may be making other minor donations also (I have yet to discuss this with YLab). I also may soon be proposing the loan of various bits of radio gear, notably including an RF signal generator and an antenna analyzer. There will, however, have to be a caveat: I would be obliged to make my loans for a short term only. In September, or thereabouts, it will on present plans be time for me to finish packing all my Canadian chattels for sea transport to Estonia.<br />
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****</div>
<br />
<i>(C)</i> I engaged in fully happy diplomacy with RASC on 2018-06-09, with a correctly friendly level of understanding replacing previous tensions. I think it would now be fair to say that both sides in the dialogue tacitly agree to disagree on the destroyed 32 DDO&P hectares, in other words on the 14-new-street Corsica subdivision - with RASC, through their entering into a contractual relationship with property developer Corsica, and through various past silences (notably in the media, and at the 2009 Conservation Review Board, and at the 2012-through-2015 Ontario Municipal Board and Divisional Court), implicitly dissenting from my own conservationist position. - I do have to add here (a point which I partially neglected in my various versions of my essay until "version 2.1.0", at UTC=20180611T2136Z) that individual members of RASC, as opposed to RASC itself as a "legal person" speaking in its corporate name, have been explicitly supportive of conservation. I return to this point briefly below, first in connection with RASC's Dr Ralph Chou, and then in connection with RASC's Mr Eric Briggs. <br />
<br />
I was privileged to chat on the day with the national RASC President, Mr Colin Haig (he was visiting DDO from Hamilton, Ontario), and to learn of his own interest in amateur radio, particularly in UHF fabrication.<br />
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I was happy also to chat with Dr Ralph Chou of the RASC Toronto Centre, and to express to him my gratitude for his warm private thanks to me this past week, in respect both of my annual RASC <i>Observer's Handbook</i> work (cf my <b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogspot</span></b> posting of 2018-01-01, under the heading "The Visually Brightest Stars (Fresh RASC Publishing Initiatives)") and of my DDO conservationist advocacy.<br />
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Further, I was happy to chat with Mr Eric Briggs, likewise prominent in the RASC Toronto Centre, after hearing his DDO podium remarks on the role RASC has played in the educational formation of Canadian astrophysicists. From those podium remarks, I picked up much that was new to me - for instance, that my sometime University of Toronto classmate Sara Seager (now with MIT, as an exoplanets authority; <a href="https://www.saraseager.com/">https://www.saraseager.com/</a>) has RASC ties, and that such ties have existed in the remote past also - as with, e.g., the still-remembered DDO meteorite specialist Dr Peter Millman (1906-1990; he left DDO in 1940, began war service in 1941, and later served with the Dominion Observatory and the National Research Council).<br />
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It was additionally instructive to learn from these podium remarks that DDO's second Director, Prof. Reynold Young (1886-1977), had promoted Canada's war effort through RASC, trying to recruit optics engineers from the nationwide RASC rank-and-file (which back in those days must have been replete with mirror-grinders).<br />
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And I think I did not know until hearing Mr Briggs that astronomy enthusiast David Dunlap himself (1863-1924) may have first come to know of RASC in a community-service context. Mr Briggs noted that both Mr Dunlap and RASC's own Allan Miller were members of the Board at the Toronto General Hospital, around 1918.<br />
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Further, it is from Mr Briggs's podium remarks that I gather, or at any rate am reminded after years of amnesia, how strong was the support of individual RASC members for the conservationist position at the 2009 Conservation Review Board. Mr Briggs stated that over half of the conservation-supporting letters received at the Board came from RASC individuals. <br />
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Mindful of the fresh diplomatic détente with RASC, I would now respectfully offer the following points, or queries:<br />
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<li>There is a conceivable RASC synergy with the YLab team, who are emerging as a centre of radio expertise. Could not YLab help RASC continue an activity started at DDO by RASC a few years ago, namely the monitoring of radio flux from the Sun? </li>
<li>As I put my perhaps three or four shelf-metres of DDO advocacy paperwork into archive order, for conveying this autumn to some such public authority as the Richmond Hill Public Library or the Archives of Ontario, might RASC be interested in offering some for-them-painless logistic help? I am willing to sort that mountain of paper in the tight confines of my upcoming final Canadian place of residence, and would be happy also to sort it within the pleasantly quiet (again somewhat tight) walls of the Local History Room at the Richmond Hill Public Library. But might it be possible to do the sorting within the wider walls of DDO, perhaps during business hours, under arrangement with the Town and in my capacity as a RASC member? I could if necessary supply my own computer equipment, chair, and (folding) table. In general, for archive work the more space one has to spread things out, in some deserted room with a generous vacant floor, the better. </li>
<li>Should some effort now be made to produce a multi-author history of DDO, with part coming from me, and other parts from established historians within the ranks of RASC? RASC has established its historiographic credentials through Mr Peter Broughton's <i>Looking Up: A History of the Royal Society of Canada</i> (Toronto and Oxford: Dundurn Press, 1994; now available digitally at <a href="https://www.rasc.ca/sites/default/files/LookingUp-300-text.pdf">https://www.rasc.ca/sites/default/files/LookingUp-300-text.pdf</a>), and in recent months through this same authority's <i>Northern Star</i> (University of Toronto Press, 2018; this new book is a biography of Canadian astrophysicist John Stanley Plakett (1865-1941)). I would be happy to write on the post-2007 conservation effort, drawing on my archive, and could also offer some modest degree of supporting insight for the writer or writers tackling two more remote key periods - on the one hand the years immediately preceding the formal DDO opening of 1935-05-31, and on the other hand the 1960s-1970s upswing in DDO research, led by a bevy of then-young workers, including my own cherished mentor, the late Prof. Robert F. Garrison (1936-2017). </li>
<li>Should efforts not now be made, in proper concert with the Town, to establish a formal Mondays-through-Fridays daytime office-and-library presence, by the RASC national administration, at DDO? If such a move from the present RASC headquarters were to be carried out with boldness and vision (I write here as an outsider, unbriefed on the logistics), then the national profile of RASC would be enhanced, and the Town itself would be making a contribution to the cultural life of the nation. </li>
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I might add in an informal way that any visitors from RASC would be welcome to stay a few nights in my upcoming new accommodations at dark-sky Tõravere - provided, that is, they do not mind being a full 20 minutes away from Tartu by rail (and from the railway platform to the Tõravere national-observatory hamlet is an additional, pleasant, rural walk of 2 kilometres), and provided they do not mind sleeping on such things as memory-foam slabs, either in my austere private sleeping cell or in my equally austere private workroom. (In either case, these rather formidable accommodations would be on the ground floor of the Brezhnev-era horror which is Tõravere's "Observatooriumi tänav 5/ Number 5 Observatooriumi Street". An advantage of living in your hamlet's sole "Brezhnevka" is that as you look out the windows, you do not see any Brezhnevkas.)<br />
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<i>(D)</i> I likewise engaged in fully happy diplomacy with DDOD on 2018-06-09, with a correctly friendly level of understanding achieved, or more accurately reiterated. I think it is fair to say that DDOD and I agree on the need to keep in view some possible DDO-Tõravere collaboration, in some such field as Johnson-Cousins UBV stellar photometry. I would privately hope either <i>(a)</i> for the DDOD's Dr Ian Shelton coming on board as the Principal Investigator in some joint observational project or <i>(b)</i> for some Tõravere scientist to become Principal Investigator, taking Dr Shelton as second-in-command. In either of these two scenarios, I would envisage myself coming up the gangplank in a rather junior Tõravere capacity, with lots of night work - in naval terms, becoming one of those reticent chappie-wappies who get to wear just a single gold band on the jacket sleeve.<br />
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In view of the favourable diplomacy, it is appropriate to take 2018-06-09 as the formal end of the "DDO&P Conflict" which formally began on 2007-09-10, with the University of Toronto announcing its unwise decision to sell.<br />
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It would be easy, in this time of peace, reconciliation, and reconstruction, to offer some of the strong music of Estonia. But I did enough along those particular musical lines in my <b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">blogspot</span></b> posting of 2018-05-22, headed "Operatsiooni 'Kodune Koli' Manööver 'Luureretk' Edukas/ Success in Operation 'Domestic Clobber', 'Preliminary Recce Manoeuvre'", by mentioning YouTube user <b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">AndrusEST</span></b>'s 2009-08-01 upload of "Eesti Lipp". I prefer now to turn instead to our northern brothers-in-arms.<br />
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I suppose one would profitably consider that salute to the Winter War veterans which has the YouTube heading "Veteraanin Iltahuuto" (upload of YouTube user <b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Mika Tanninen</span></b>, to a duration of 0:04:27; in my present particular corner of the Internet, in Canada, the material is available at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arKxCiTZoyQ">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arKxCiTZoyQ</a>).<br />
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However, I instead choose to put the focus onto a very familiar thing indeed, the usual bit of Sibelius. For this I would specifically recommend the YouTube upload headed "Jean Sibelius - Finlandia" (with a viewcount, as at UTC=20180611T1607Z, of <span class="view-count style-scope yt-view-count-renderer">5,337,303, </span>from YouTube user <b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Tarja M</span></b>, to a duration of 0:09:36). In my present particular corner of the Internet, that musical material is available at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5zg_af9b8c">https://www.youtube.c<span class="view-count style-scope yt-view-count-renderer">5,337,303 </span>om/watch?v=F5zg_af9b8c</a>.<br />
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The woodland depicted in my chosen "Finlandia" vid resonates, I admit, with three or four orders of magnitude more spiritual power than anything we are used to in the modest (and beleaguered) woods surrounding DDO. Conceding the spiritual mismatch, I ask my readers to think less of the modest physical realities of DDO&P than of national cultural and environmental heritage in general, and of the need to defend such heritage with the valour of those Winter War Finns.<br />
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<b>[This is the end of the current blog posting.] </b><br />
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Toomas (Tom) Karmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17890931543874235369noreply@blogger.com0