Everett Jenkins Birthday Blog

Yesterday was my birthday.  One of my Victorville cousins informed me that I had received some 13 Happy Birthday greetings on my Facebook page and asked if I wanted to see them.  Given my disdain for social media in general and the dire warnings set forth in The Social Dilemma about involvement with social media, I expressed reluctance.  This reluctance was bolstered by a report I later saw while watching France 24. The report was about the latest fines imposed on Meta, Facebook's parent company, by European regulators https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/irish-regulators-fine-meta-265m-euros-in-latest-privacy-case/ The European regulators appear to be more strict or vigilant than American regulators which gives one pause to wonder just what has happened here in this country which has gone undetected or undisclosed. https://theintercept.com/2022/10/31/social-media-disinformation-dhs/ I do not know much about technology and social media, but perhaps, it is time that I...

   88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 Alphabetical Index 2022 9/11 Remembrance Day  A00067 A Day with Bernadette, A Few Moments with Moses the Ethiopian A00063 Abdul Qadeer Khan, Father of Pakistan's Nuclear Program  A00003 April 2022 Must Watch TV: Benjamin Franklin: A Film by Ken Burns  A00036 Art Laboe, R. I. P.  A00078 Bill Russell, High Jumper  A00062 Black Savants: The Remarkable Stories of Willard Wigan and Stephen Wiltshire  A00009 Book of the Month for February 2022: Your Blues Ain't Like Mine: A Conversation with Bebe Moore Campbell  A00022 Book of the Month for November 2022: Trouble in the Tribe: The Four Camps in the American Jewish Debate A00093 Book of the Month for November 2022: Trouble in the Tribe: The Golden Rule  A00089 Book of the Month for December 2022: Cloud Empires  A00091 Book of the Month for December 2022: Cloud Empires: John Perry Barlow  A00098 Book...

  I noted with great sadness the passing of Irene Cara over the weekend https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/26/arts/music/irene-cara-dead.html? While most will note Irene Cara's Oscar winning song "Fame"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2jh7N7Fldk and her Grammy awards, I am most grateful for her appearance as Sparkle Williams in the 1976 movie "Sparkle".  This role  enchanted me so much that when I met a young church going woman the next year who looked like Sparkle I decided to marry her.  We were married for 25 years and had four children all because I heeded this advice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPzMdUH4dQU Peace, Everett "Skip" Jenkins Fairfield, California November 29, 2022

  According to my Torah Commentary, Chapter 19 of the Book entitled Leviticus is instructive in living a life of holiness.  Indeed, the Commentary notes that Chapter 19 is the chapter most often read and quoted of all the Torah, and that in American Reform Judaism practice, is the Torah reading for Yom Kippur -- the Day of Atonement -- afternoon. According to the Commentary, the culmination of Chapter 19 is verse 18. The verse reads "Love your neighbor as yourself" and according to the Commentary  "It is one of several versions of what in modern times has been called "the golden rule."  (We do not know when or by whom the phrase was coined.)  It appears in various forms, positive and negative, but all of them demand for others the same kind of treatment we want for ourselves. "Our passage is apparently the oldest written version of the principle.  When Hillel, at the beginning of the Christian era, was asked to sum up the entire Torah briefly, he replied: ...

This week, the nation shall celebrate a national day of Thanksgiving https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States) The original Thanksgiving has been portrayed as the peaceful coming together of two cultures -- the Pilgrims from England and the Wampanoag of Native America -- some 400 years ago.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrims_(Plymouth_Colony) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wampanoag However, like much of the history taught in schools, the portrayal of Native Americans has seldom been accurate and, indeed, the history of the Wampanoag before and since that inaugural Thanksgiving has been and is largely tragic.  As noted in Wikipedia, The Wampanoag  ...  are a  Native American people  and an  Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands  based in southeastern  Massachusetts  and historically parts of eastern  Rhode Island , [3]  Their territory included the islands of  Martha's Vineyard ...

I recently attended a conference named Techonomy 22 which was held in nearby Sonoma, California, from November 13 to November 15.  Techonomy 22 is the successor event to the Techonomy events sponsored by Techonomy Media https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techonomy_Media It is my understanding that Techonomy 22 was the first Techonomy conference to be held in the last three years due to COVID. The principal moderator of Techonomy 22 was David Kirkpatrick, a classmate of mine from Amherst College.  David did a masterful job of interviewing some of the most prominent individuals in not only the fields of technology but also in the fields of medicine and climate change.  The wonders and marvels discussed at the conference were at times overwhelming, especially for a person, like me, who is technology averse.  Nevertheless, even as a Luddite, I came away with a deeper appreciation of the Tech Universe with all of its potential, and its peril.  Over the next few months, I ...

  Today is Veterans Day and this month is Native American Heritage Month.  Accordingly, it seems very appropriate that on this day the National Native American Veterans Memorial will be dedicated in Washington, D.C.  https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/national-museum-american-indian-dedicate-national-native-american-veterans-0 On this day, it would be nice to remember some of the contributions made by Native American soldiers, most notably the Native American Code Talkers whose languages proved to be "unbreakable" during World War II. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_talker https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/navajo-code-talkers-and-the-unbreakable-code/ And, as always, I conclude a memorial remembrance with this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwh5QsOi6xI Peace, Everett "Skip" Jenkins Fairfield, California November 11, 2022