Back on board.

First of all my laptop went down in the middle of work I was completing (off line).  Then after re-booting I found few of my programs would actually work.  I managed to get one to clean up my registry, then used another to re-set the laptop.  After almost a day of trying this and that, having to re-boot each time, I finally got the thing working.

Then it happened again.  Something was not right.  But this time my security software kicked in suggesting a Trojan was on board.

I rebooted and ran a full security scan of the laptop and sure enough there was a Trojan - two files were identified, one was deleted by the software but the other left.  This I was able to delete using the security software.  After re-booting, yet again, the laptop behaved itself.

A Trojan is mallware that hides inside another innocent looking program.  Some Trojans are just pests, others are downright dangerous.  Even though I'm careful about anything I download, trying to stay with trusted companies, it still happened to me and if this can happen to me it can happen to anyone.  This Trojan caught me off guard, even though I run my security software often.   This time I was able to deal with the mess it made of my computer files.

Be careful, there are nuts out there in Cyberspace who love to mess with your PC or Laptop because they've nothing better to do with their sad, pointless lives.  Check with the companies that provide your security software for infomation on mallware and the like and follow their advice.

Mick - Glad to be back.

Special Knowledge? No Way!

It would appear that there is some confusion regarding the Gnostic gospels, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the teaching of Gnosticism. So first of all some clarification: the Gnostic gospels are dated from the second to fourth century AD and the writers of these gospels never even met Jesus Christ. Most of what we know of Gnosticism and it's teaching comes from St. Irenaeus and his work: “Detection and Overthrow of the Gnosis Falsely So-called”, also known as, “Against Heresies”. The Gnostic gospels were discovered accidentally by two farmers in Egypt in December, 1945 and although some were duplicated in different finds, only one copy of the Gospel of Mary Magdalene exists. The discovery of these writings did not devalue the writing of St. Irenaeus but rather confirmed what he had written. Indeed, St. Irenaeus remains the primary source for our understanding of the Gnostics.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of some 972 documents, including text from the Hebrew Bible discovered between 1946 and 1956 around the ancient ruins of the settlement of Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea and have nothing in common with the Gnostic gospels. These documents date from around 150 BC to 70 AD and written mostly in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Karin and I have actually seen them with our own peepers!

Now then, St. Irenaeus was the second Bishop of Lyons, succeeding the martyred St. Pothinus. Irenaeus was originally from Asia and he was a pupil of St. Polycarp, ordained bishop by the Apostles in Asia. In his above mentioned work, St. Irenaeus wrote:

[Marcion], moreover, mutilated the Gospel according to Luke, removing all that is written about the generations of the Lord; and he removed much of the teaching of the Lord's utterances, in which the Lord is recorded as confessing most clearly that His Father is the Maker of the universe. He also persuaded his followers that he himself was more truthful than those Apostles who have handed down the Gospel; and he furnished them not with the Gospel but with a small part of the Gospel.

The Catholic Encyclopedia describes Gnoticism's origin as:

Whereas formerly Gnosticism was considered mostly a corruption of Christianity, it now seems clear that the first traces of Gnostic systems can be discerned some centuries before the Christian Era. Its Eastern origin was already maintained by Gieseler and Neander; F. Ch. Bauer (1831) and Lassen (1858) sought to prove its relation to the religions of India; Lipsius (1860) pointed to Syria and Phoenicia as its home, and Hilgenfeld (1884) thought it was connected with later Mazdeism. Joel (1880), Weingarten (1881), Koffmane (1881), Anrich (1894), and Wobbermin (1896) sought to account for the rise of Gnosticism by the influence of Greek Platonic philosophy and the Greek mysteries, while Harnack described it as "acute Hellenization of Christianity".

Gnosticism then, has no place in Catholic or Protestant Christianity. So now you know!

Calendar Girls: A True Story.

Was the movie Calendar Girls based on real-life characters? Not really, even if the movie is actually based on a true story.  Intentional similarities do exist when comparing the close friendship of Annie (Julie Walters) and Chris (Helen Mirren) to that of Angela Baker and Tricia Stewart in real life. -BBC.

The women decided to do the calendar to raise money to help fight leukemia after Angela Baker's husband John died from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in July 1998 at age 54. John, played in the movie by John Alderton, worked as a National Park Officer for the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and from the onset of his illness he grew sunflowers.  The image of the sunflower is present throughout the calendar.

Much of the film was fictionalized, including most of the characters and their names.  However, the basic storyline is true.  Women aged between 45 and 65 posed nude for a Women's Institute Calendar to raise money for charity.  Unlike in the movie, the women had the full support of the local and national WI for the calendar.  What was not mentioned in the movie was the additional support of Actress Glenda Jackson, one of the calendar's sponsors.  Glenda is the only member of the British Parliament to have actually won an Oscar!  Naturally, her support for the calendar drew attention.

In 2000, the calendar had raised more than £450,000. The money was used to fund cutting edge research into lymphoma and leukaemia at the University of Leeds. A plaque dedicated to John Baker was placed in new laboratories at Leeds. The plaque reads, "The work in this laboratory is dedicated to the memory of John Baker in recognition of the exceptional fundraising achievements of ‘The Calendar Girls’ of the Rylstone & District Women’s Institute."  -Leukaemia Research Fund

See: The Calendar Girls Official Site

Above are actress's Helen Mirren, born July 26th 1945 and Julie Walters born February 22nd 1950 (I was born one month later)!

In addition to the calendars, six of the original WI Calendar women posed for a postcard titled "Baker's Half Dozen" (shown above). The women include Lynda Logan, Beryl Bamforth, Tricia Stewart, Christine Clancy, Angela Baker and Ros Fawcett.

Why not visit: The Cook Companies

Oh Hum... Packers are in!

Sunday was for those in Wisconsin the make or break game.  The Green Bay Packers won against the Chicago Bears 10 - 3 and that was it.

It was the Bears who dominated the opening quarter, leading the Packers 3 - 0 until the Packers scooped up a field goal to make the score even.  Then as the game really warmed up for the Packers they got the illusive touchdown and conversion to add another seven points to the three they had picked up.  Although the Bears fought back, an intercept in the dying minutes brought the game to an end: Game Over.  The Packers had won their way into the play-offs.  Even if most of us in Wisconsin watched from the comfort of our living rooms, snacks to hand, it was a good day for the Cheese Heads!

The big question of the day is, why did the camera wander over to this section of the crowd?  It's a good job I managed to get my eyeballs back into their sockets before my wife noticed!

It seems that Wisconsin breeds some rather hardy girls... the temperature gets above freezing and the girls get into their bikinis to watch the big game!  I suppose only the Canadians can top that!  Then again, Canada is somewhat cooler this time of year.