At the begining of this almost finished century we 'could' write a letter to Mr. Holden way down/over yonder in NZ and 'hope' that he would get it in two or three or four months. Now we can sit at home and contact him almost instantaneously ! At the begining of this almost finished century we still relied on a sextant and chronometer to navigate around the globe. Very accurate timepieces and very reliable sextants were 'very' expensive and relied on the skill and knowledge of the operator as to accuracy of navigation. Then, 'accuracy' was considered acceptable if you came within two or three miles of an intended destination after a journey of 1,000 miles. Today I saw an advertisement for a 12 station GPS, accurate to within 300 feet...this thingee sells for $139.00. At the begining of this almost finished century the most accurate 'computer' was still the Abacus and perhaps the punch cards used in the textile industry, though the latter were not 'really' computers. Today, as we end this century, we carry more computing power around in our Palm Pilots then was available to take man to the moon, develop atomic power, or determine the speed of light. At the begining of this almost finished century average life span was aprox 50 years. At the end, average life span is approaching aprox 80 years. At the begining of this almost finished century disease/epidemic/early death shaped our lives and led what is now 'history' in unpredictable ways. Now as this century closes we have gained knowledge and changed the future by erradicating, for all practical purposes, some of the most malevolent diseases and controling many others.............who can say where we would be if this were not the case? At the begining of this almost finished century we enjoyed music written in a prior century and thank goodness we will still enjoy the same music into the next century and beyond. What a pleasure it is to participate, in some small way, in a continuum of such magnitude. One which, ignoring all the temporal advances, remains as a constant, although everchanging, influence on our lives and on our work. A continuum which provides us a glance into our souls, our past, our present and even into our future. Thank you all and.................Happy New Year All!!! Jim Bryant (FL)
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