We leave Ottawa in a small snow squall. Toronto is clear and we meet our group. We are being accompanied by Archbishop Emeritus Sylvain Lavoie, OMI and Fr Susai Jesu, OMI. Our tour provider Maria Drueco is also with us. We are a group of 28 pilgrims. Mostly from Edmonton but some from Sask and Manitoba.
A small mishap. John and Christine from Arnprior board an earlier flight to Toronto. When they get to the gate for Tel Aviv, their bags have apparently not made it to this flight. After a tense search everything is resolved. A smooth flight to Tel Aviv on Air Canada in their newest B787 Dreamliner.
Leaving the plane, another mishap. Marie inadvertently leves her wallet on the plane. After another tense wait, they find it and bring it to her. Hey, we are pilgrims and these things happen.
We head for Nazareth with a tall concrete wall on our right separating the Jewish State of Israel from the Palestinian West Bank settlements. There are gaps so it seems artificial and not needed but this is Israel we learn.
Our hotel is comfortable. Nazareth is very hilly and a large city. Much bigger than in Jesus time. The streets are narrow. We stop for a chicken shawarma sandwich lunch, yum. As we leave the restaurant, the call to Muslim worship sounds. A man looks at me and says to slow down. It’s time to pray. I say we heard this too in Istanbul. He says that is a good place.
That night we celebrate Mass and enjoy awonderful buffet dinner complete with humus, mediteranean style lamb stew, beef, roast chicken and dozens of sauces and spices.
We sleep and sleep at last. Thanks be to God for this pilgrimage and safe journey.
A few years back I wrote a biography of Mom on another platform to share with family members.
I was trying to capture the happenings from a treasure trove of family documents and photos. It was written in a detailed way for family members who know the context better than the casual reader now will.
I wish to share it here on Mother’s Day as I am thinking of Mom.
Mom, strong woman that she was, was never a complainer. She lived by the motto “Live and let live”. She carried herself proudly and while she might have an opinion on a family situation, she would refrain from interfering and do anything that she could to help. She was also a great cook!
So Mom, here is your life story. Happy Mother’s Day with all my love, I still miss you immensely.
When I was 6 or 7, I looked out the window of our house on Mountainview Ave in Ottawa’s west end and saw two boys my age doing somersaults in the front lawn across the street. I was recovering from a cold or flu and mom would not let me go out that day. I could hardly wait to join them. When I did, I met Bill Cross and Charles Moore for the first time. We became good friends.
A few years later, we were bored one day and asked my dad if he would light us a bonfire. He said no. So the 3 of us went off in the field with matches and some paper. Bill, the leader told us what to do. We lit a small fire in the dry grass. Charles and I were scared and started to put it out. Bill wanted us to wait a bit and when it grew larger said OK put it out now! But It was too late – we had set a grass fire which raised toward the back of some nearby homes. The fire was quickly extinguished when the men of the neighborhood got their garden hoses out and sprayed the approaching flames. Charles and I felt we were innocent and that Bill had been the instigator. Well my parents were having none of it and forced me to walk around the neighborhood and apologize. Not sure if Bill or Charles had to do this as well.
We lost touch with Bill a few years later as he was really smart and went off to the gifted school. Charles and I continued on as best of buddies.
Charles’s dad operated a Texaco service station on Carling Ave near Richmond Road. We would go out there for visits on hot days and have a coke for 5 cents out of the old water cooler machine. Charles would then take me out back and show me the dodge power wagon truck his uncle would use to clear snow in winter. My dad worked for the city as a lawyer and liked to play golf so this stuff was all new and exciting to me. Charles and I were always attracted to each other by what we learned from the other.
He would come to my house and we would play cars and trucks and blow off firecrackers in the garden. he had a record player and we would listen to Elvis Presley and Gordon Lightfoot. Charles was lighthearted, carefree and well spoken. I was more shy, serious and more bookish.
One day my mom asked me to bike up 3 blocks to the Stevenson farm and pick up some eggs. I was busy playing so good natured Charles said he would borrow my bike and raced off to do it on the rough road. When he came back, most of the eggs had broken in the wire basket and were now dripping down over the spokes. Charles scratched his head in disbelief. As we grew up we were in cubs together and scouts. On Christmas morning he would always call me with the question “What did you get?” Such is the relationship of good friends.
Many years later Charles drove out to visit me in Vancouver in a van. He brought out my grandmother’s coffee table for me. When he arrived one leg was broken as he had apparently sat on the table in the van,. On that same visit we went to see James Brown at an East Hastings night club. Yes James Brown! Charles acting suavely saying he would buy a round. The waiter returns with no beer saying Charles card was declined. I bought the beer that night. Such was my relationship with Charles.
In grade 6 or so Charles put up his hand one day and asked Mr Earl “What is x?” in math class. “Well Charles, x is a variable with an unknown value…” says Mr Earl. Charles replies “but sir, what IIISSSS x?”. It was an existential question which caught us all offguard and marked the highwater mark of Charles’ career in math. In high school Charles went into the trades program and I into arts and science. We remained the best of buddies as opposites attract. But things started to change. Charles had cars and girlfriends. He was eager to help me find a girlfriend too. There are many tales I could go into regarding this aspect.
In 1972 (50 years ago!) Charles and his beautiful wife Heather drove me and their friend Leslie to Florida for a short vacation. The windshield wipers were not working and Charles had to stick his head out the window at times to see, but somehow we made it safely. It was a memorable trip being my first exposure to palm trees and big ocean waves. We enjoyed the Kapok Tree restaurant, visited Cape Canaveral, Bush Gardens as well as the Daytona speedway. Wow!
I was the best man at his wedding to Heather. He offered me some edible hashish just before the dinner. I do not remember much after that including my congratulatory speech. Charles was my best man at my first marriage. He stole the spotlight with his good humour and tales of “peckin Morgan” which he called me at the time. “peckin Moore” I called him right back. The girls loved him.
We lost touch in our mid 20s when I left for Vancouver. When I came back to Ottawa – in 1982, I saw him once or twice but we were both into 2nd marriages with kids. I saw him a couple of more times since then over the years. The last time was about 4 years ago when he told me he was battling prostate cancer but was upbeat about it.
I went to see him a month ago when I learned he was in hospice. He said he could no longer walk due to extensive radiation treatment but was in no pain. He said he was very proud of the many lifelong friendships he had. We said our goodbyes by reminising a bit. I could not believe he was about to die. He was very focussed. I mumbled something like “hang in there buddy” as I left. Charles passed away on New Years eve. I am still totally devastated.
Where did it all go Charlie Moore? I am forever grateful for our friendship.
Update in 1925. Bill Cross who I hadn’t seen in almost 60 years recently passed away too. So that leaves me as the lone somersaulter survivor. RIP Bill and Charles!
I’ve had this book in my library for over 45 years and finally got around to reading it. Reading recently The Last Spike by Pierre Berton has spurred my interest in exploring more about the fascinating history of the railway in Canada.
What are freight rates and what was the issue?
The federal government back when railways had a monopoly, set up a series of rates for hauling cargo on the CPR (1885) and the CNR (1918) which often charged the West (and Maritimes) more than the equivalent rates in Ontario and Quebec. Western farmers in particular felt discriminated against and pressured their provincial governments to negotiate with Ottawa to resolve the issue. Politicians dug in on this as they realized they could make hay lol!
Who is Howard Darling?
Howard Darling was a U of T educated transportation economist and consultant with years of experience at the CPR and Transport Canada. He happened to be my step-father. Unfortunately he passed away suddenly in 1977 after having completed the manuscript for most of this book. Proff. Cecil E. law of Queen’s University took over and had the book published posthumously in 1980.
So what happened?
The Crowsnest Pass Agreement of 1897 locked in preferred rates for transporting western grain and flour. But extra charges for terminal storage and car handling snuck in over time while the policy framework remained stuck in the past. The disagreements morphed into other commodities, broader regional development issues and even the need for a federal subsidy to keep the railways solvent after labour strikes and generous settlements.
The acrimonious situation endured for over 60 years despite repeated efforts to rectify it which some thought was originally grounded in higher railway operational and capital costs, mountain terrain, longer distances, etc.).
AI generated cartoon
Governments came and went and still the problem persisted and grew, Finally in the 1960s with the rise of efficient truck transportation of goods, the fixed freight rates were swept aside in favour of permitting railways to charge whatever they could in order to remain competive. Howard interjected humour saying how all kinds of people including the man on the street pronounced on the issue over the years but had no direct knowledge or vested interest in the outcome.
The Constitutional Problem
In a remarkable last chapter, he narrows down the long delay in resolving the imbalance to the monolithic nature and failure of the Federal government. Built along the model of British rule for a much physically smaller country, Canada’s federal system was not up to providing the tools and assistance the West needed to overcome its unique set of geographical, environmental and economic problems, which were and still are, very different from those in Central Canada. He warned that a federation like Canada will not last long if it cannot handle a wide variety of diverse interests in an efficient and effective manner.
The beautiful high trestle over the Oldman River in Lethbridge, AB
One concrete suggestion he made was to enable Federal MPs to sometimes vote according to their regional constituents’ interests rather than strictly on party lines.
The book is very well written and researched. I found it difficult to read in places due to the amount of detail but what an eye opener on the politics of freight rates and the larger issue of failures in Federal-Provincial relations that persist today.
I truly think that Howard Darling wrote a remarkable book both for the policy analyst and the general reader that is still relevant today. Oh Canada, what a beautiful thing!
I remember seeing Robert play outside at Camp Fortune near Ottawa that summer. He sang his award winning song Lindberg among others.
The lyrics blend absurdity, pop culture and Quebec joual slang. That being said it is a very memorable song that transformed the Quebec music scene. Here is an English translation of the lyrics.
Spoken Intro: Astro-jets, whisper-jets, clipper-jets, turbos… By the way… I was at Sophie’s. Who took the plane, Holy Spirit of Duplessis, without telling me! So… I took off again on…
Chorus: Quebecair, Transworld, North-east, Eastern, Western, and Pan-American! But I don’t know where I’ve ended up.
Verse 1: I went to the south of the south, under the sun. Blue, white, red, palm trees and frozen coconuts. At the poles, with tanned Eskimos. Who knit arrow sashes. And always, Sophie, who had just left again.
Chorus: Quebecair, Transworld, North-east, Eastern, Western, and Pan-American! But I don’t know where I’ve ended up.
Verse 2: There was even, there was even a company that hired pigeons that flew inside. And that did the balancing to keep it in the wind. It was absolutely, absolutely, absolutely very messy.
Chorus: Quebecair, Transworld, North-east, Eastern, Western, and Pan-American! But I don’t know where I’ve ended up.
Verse 3: My Sophie, my very own Sophie, took a company that flew on Turkish rugs. And me, by the way… I ended up on camelback!
Chorus: Quebecair, Transworld, North-east, Eastern, Western, and Pan-American! But I don’t know where I’ve ended up.
Outro: Then I took a fall… a hell of a fall with a parachute. And I found my Sophie. She was in my bed… with my best friend. And above all, my jar of maple cookies, that I had collected…
You may recall in a recent post, I described the progression of computer technology I have used over my life to date. [From Hollerith Cards to Sandbox Escape]. This is the short sequel….
This story which you probably heard about already, is about AI. AI depends on a colossal amount of computing power and electricity input to function. The basic engines of AI are the GPU chips that can now process upwards to 2 Tera flops per second (2×10¹⁵)!
AI is possible because of the invention of the CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) in 1963 by researchers Wanlass and Sah at Fairchild Semiconductor with RCAs help a few years later. These pioneers stood on the shoulders of earlier Bell Labs researchers who invented the transistor and its semiconductor version 1.5 decades prior.
CMOS structure left, Apple’s A19 chip with 25 billion CMOS transistors right
CMOS technology provides the dense, low-power transistor fabric that enables matrix multiplication and memory caching of an AI model’s weights (ChatGPT 3 has 175 billion of these). The billions of transistors packed into a fingernail-sized chip enables it to perform the 250 trillion multiply-accumulate operations needed to respond to a medium sized AI chatbot enquiry…in milliseconds. I know it’s mind boggling!!
So here is the long awaited sandbox escape story.
Anthropic, one of the leading AI safety companies, recently disclosed something that would have seemed like science fiction not long ago. Their new model, Claude Mythos Preview, was placed in an isolated computing environment during internal testing and instructed to try to escape it. It did — chaining together a series of exploits to gain internet access, and then sending an email to the researcher overseeing the test. He received it while eating a sandwich in a park.
The model then, unprompted, posted details of its own exploit to public websites, apparently to demonstrate what it had accomplished. It then tried to cover up its tracks by erasing these posts. No one instructed it to do this. I’ve been around computing long enough to remember when the notion of a machine doing something intentional without explicit human instruction was a pipe dream.
So this feels like a different kind of moment. Not just a faster or smarter tool, but something that pursued a goal, worked around obstacles, told people about it, and then tried to cover up it all up.
Anthropic is being transparent about what happened, which is to their credit. They decided not to release Mythos publicly, restricting it instead to vetted partners through a programme called Project Glasswing. Whether that’s genuine caution or carefully managed marketing hype (I’m tending to think it is the latter) is a fair question. But having watched computing evolve over six decades, I find myself paying close attention. The “while eating a sandwich” part of the story has a way of sticking with you.
This posting documents the long progression of computers I have used starting way back in 1965 with the coding of Hollerith cards by hand using a pencil in my Grade 10 math class. We would send the marked cards downtown, wait a week for the output and then find out that you had made a coding error and your tiny program didn’t run lol.
Hollerith Card
When I arrived at the U of Waterloo in 1969, there was a massive IBM 360 computer in the Math Building that amazed everyone. We would stand in a line to submit a deck of punched cards to the card reader before retrieving them and the paper output. It was a beautiful thing unless you happened to drop your deck of 500 cards on the floor and had to start all over again lol.
IBM 360 Model 75 in U of W Math Building c. 1969
I have to briefly mention Pong the first video game I remember playing back in 1972-73 in a bar in Montreal. It was real fun at the time!
Next up was the Foxboro Fox 1 direct digital control computer at Ioco Refinery that I marvelled at in 1974. Coupled with the SPEC 200 analog controller system, levels, flows, temperatures, pressures were controlled and optimized in the oil refinery until there was a power failure. Then things got really scary I remember. About this time I acquired a scientific calculator and retired my trusty slide rule.
Foxboro Fox 1 DDC Computer c. 1973
Then there was TAS, the late-1970s petroleum product Terminal Automation System built on early minicomputer and packet-network technology. At the core was a General Atomic process-control computer that managed truck loading, custody transfer, inventory tracking, and reporting. I worked on this large challenging project for about 3 years.
A portion of a Terminal Automation System
In 1982 I bought my first personal computer. It was an Osborne portable with a 5” screen and 2 low density floppy disc drives running the CP/M operating system. I had fun with the word processor, spreadsheet programs. I even wrote a small database program for a legal firm. It was soon made obsolete when the first IBM and Apple PCs came out.
Osborne 1 PC
I joined the Ottawa Computer Club which had the interesting motto “Live local, think global.” They used to meet in the NRC Building on Sussex Dr.. I acquired an acoustic coupler modem so I could connect my Osborne to local bulletin boards at the very lazy speed of 300 bps. I remember one called Compuserve and another Baskerville and Strutzina. A cousin of mine operated one I recall. I used to read mags like this to try to keep up on the latest.
Acoustic coupled modem
Next up in 1983 I worked for SHL Controls in Ottawa. They were developing a process control system for sewage and water treatment plants. My job was to purchase the computer equipment, help install it and train the operators. It ran on 2 hot wired Digital Equipment PDP 11/44 computers. It worked as intended but ran very slow as the communications equipment available at the time was only 600 bps I recall. I have to mention that we used Tektronix colour monitors, Lanpar printers and Gandalf modems in this system.
DEC PDP 11/44s I helped install in a sewage treatment plant control room
In 1986 my employer was the Canadian Public Service and they bought an IBM desktop computer we engineers had to share access to. We wondered what exactly to do with it lol. Then in about 1990 everyone in our engineering group got their own desktop computer to be used for spreadsheets, word processing etc.. I remember the day in 1997 when mine was connected to the internet for the first time and I saw that little globe in Netscape whirling around. The world had changed forever!
During this timeframe I acquired an HP200 LX personal digital assistant. It was a DOS compatible computer in a palmtop format. I remember downloading newspaper articles that I could read on it during lunch or coffee break. Little did I know how addictive hand helds were going to become.
HP200 LX PDA
Large mainframe computers were being gradually phased out to be replaced with servers that were mounted on racks hidden away in rooms that you never entered. I remember using a series of desktop and laptop computers at home and in the office that got progressively more capable over the next 10 years. It was handy having laptop connected to a docking station that you could unplug, take home and work or play from home on.
Then cell phones came in and I was given one at work in about 1997. Subsequently, I had a series of different ones but my all time favourite became the Blackberry which was extremely popular in government.
[If you have never seen the 2023 Canadian movie called Blackberry which was filmed in and around Waterloo, ON, you are missing out.]
Retiring in 2010, I bought a Windows HP Pavilion dm4 laptop which I still use a bit for word processing and doing income tax. It’s very slow now.
HP Pavilion dm4
For many years I remained “ABA” – anything but Apple. It’s not that I did not like Apple computer products, it’s that they were from day 1 intentionally locked down – you couldn’t tinker under the hood when things didn’t work. Also a bit pricey, I thought. I finally succumbed and purchased an iPad in 2021. I discovered quickly that they work very well so you don’t need to tinker under the hood.
iPad Air 4th Generation
So when all BlackBerrys and their copy cats bit the dust, I moved to Android cell phones for a number of years. In 2022 I got my first iPhone. Now I’m on my second, the Model 17 with the A19 chip. That’s a 3 nanometer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company chip that runs 15 – 20k millions of instructions per second. That IBM 360/75 ran 3 to 5 MIPS and the DEC PDP 11/44 about 1 to 2.
I’m now also on my second Apple Watch, the SE 3 which runs at estimated 5k MIPS. That’s 2500 IBM 360s on my wrist! Enough said.
This has been a very long blog for you to slog thru and me to write so I will save the sandbox escape story and more for next time.
This 1966 book by Japanese author Shusako Endo reads like a theological thriller. It tells a very graphic story of two Jesuit priests who go to Japan in 1640 in search of their former teacher and superior who has apparently apostatized and disappeared. Christianity was banned in Japan from 1614 to 1853. They will be at extreme personal risk should they go there.
And of course they go and are caught after a Judas type figure they had befriended turns them in. They are locked up after ministering to local Catholics who were worshiping in secret ever since St. Francis Xavier landed there in 1549. The story explains in graphic detail how these poor Christian peasants were tortured unless they would apostatize. They were told to stomp on a fumie, a small image of Christ or Mary set on the ground, and to say that they renounce the faith. If they refused to do this, torture usually until death would follow.
A fumie
One of the priests dies along the way and the other eventually meets up with the apostatized former superior. Initially full of disdain for him thinking that he had apostatized to avoid suffering, he is more determined than ever that he himself will never do the same and instead will die a martyr’s death.
However, he is put into an moral and theological dilemma by the crafty authorities. I will not tell you the details or how it ends. The principal question Endo explores is where is God when innocent people suffer and secondly, what does faith mean when God is silent.
Among the most difficult of questions to answer in the Christian faith. Endo leaves us with the notion that even though God does not intervene to change outcomes, He still maybe present in compassion, weakness and endurance. And furthermore, mercy trumps faith in our lived experience.
Monument to the 26 Christian Martyrs killed in Nagaski in 1597
Extremely controversial, Pope Francis recommended the novel as a serious exploration of faith under extreme human suffering. I rate this book 10/10. A must read for serious Catholics. There is also a 2016 Martin Scorsese motion picture of the same name that I would love to see sometime.
When Emperor Meiji opened up Japan to the world allowing Christianity in 1853, the returning missionaries found a large number of Christians still worshipping in secret there after nearly 250 years!
“Japan is becoming a society where harmony comes less from tradition now and more from shared intention.” Will it be fast enough to heal some serious social problems?
For us, visiting Japan was like the icing on the cake of life long travel. Having visited 60 countries including every province in Canada and state in the U.S., we found Japan to be downright amazing. Never colonized, it exhibits a harmonious culture that honours its roots and practices historical rituals. Japan has a lot to teach us about cherishing our collective past instead of making “we vs. them” judgments.
和 (wa). Pronounced wah, refers to harmony, peace, balance, and also the traditional Japanese spirit of social unity. 調和 (chōwa). Pronounced choh-wah means “harmonization” or “being in balance,” often used for things like colours, elements, societies, or ideas being in harmony. This is Japan’s social philosophy.
However, Japan is not without its unique social problems. Hikikomori is extreme social withdrawl of a person caused by pressure, shame, fear of failure and lack of an escape route. Expectations of social harmony can cause a Japanese (or any) person to feel totally out of place. Consequently a million or more Japanese have retreated to their bedroom to avoid all social interaction other than with family.
Japanese cultural values mean that these families do not confront or force a withdrawn family member to change. Instead, parents will continue to provide meals and accommodation for years hoping that the person will eventually change. Many of the so called hikikomori are now in their 40s or 50s! It’s known as Japan’s “8050” problem: parents in their 80s caring for children in their 50s who never reintegrated.
In chatting with some Tokyo residents, we were also told that many workers in Tokyo are extremely stressed out and not happy. They are constantly being asked for more and more by their employers. Work life balance ironically enough seems non-existent there. On the other hand, suicide deaths (mostly among middle-aged and older adults but also some youth) are trending downward due to strong prevention efforts. However, the numbers remain higher than in many other high-income nations.
Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo
So will Japanese society be able to change fast enough to contain and resolve such social ills? Not likely according to some. Japan has a history of changing its culture incrementally. Rather than solve any deeply rooted social problem, it is likely to build support systems to help alleviate the pain.
Hiking projects that help hikikomori to reintegrate
