Irreproachable Honourableness

God calls collect: lightning strikes

I'm posting this in the hope of someone finding an ancient column (I think from Byte magazine, but the years have made that detail fuzzy) that I remember fragments of—actually, I remember nearly the whole article, it seems, and not the source nor the author. (The author may have been Jerry Pournelle, but there's another name of similar vintage that haunts that memory, yet I cannot recall it.)

The article was (perhaps) the author's regular column, and was titled something like When God Calls Collect. The opening paragraph recalled a Star Trek episode in which Spock saves the Enterprise by some engineering cross-wiring that worked, but at the cost of causing severe damage to "Engineering" and (perhaps) nearly causing the Enterprise to incandesce. On finding out what Spock did, Scotty exclaims, "Spock! Dinna ye know, ye canna plug a 15-ampere tap inta the side of God!"

The author then goes on to detail just what happened when God made "a collect call" to his house—and home network (and this when these were comparatively rare)—via a nearby lightning strike. The surge came through his son's computer, scrambling the CMOS, messed up (but not fatally) an early game console of some sort (also in his son's room?), then shot through the network and phone lines to the rest of the house. A telephone was apparently melted beyond the experience of a telephone repairman (memory may fail me here). The author's wife's computer was lightly damaged, and a more important computer was brutally savaged by the electric surge. A FAX machine was toasted (or at least warmed to taste), this device was damaged, this was messed up, and the cost of the lightning strike continued to rise.

In a final detail of the strike's effects, the author notes with understatement that "Oh, yes, the microVAX in the study reported that a number of network nodes were no longer available."

Does anybody remember this article, or (better) have a pointer to it somewhere?

Reflecting

I was browsing Flickr to see what other photographers had captured from the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa. I came across this composite of images from the entrance area of the museum. The life-size images—mounted on the front and back of mirrored pillars—walk together up the main ramp to the gallery entrance. They are photographs of the descendants of the diverse families who were part of the rush to Johannesburg for gold in the 1880's, whose diversity was viewed as a a threat to be suppressed and controlled via apartheid.

Samuel's House

This was our driver's house in Tembisa. It is painted in traditional Ndebele style, although it is a (nearly) contemporary house.

Ndebele Headmen

On our summer mission trip, our driver Samuel took us to his house in Tembisa. It was painted (in part) in designs similar to those in this picture, which are typical Ndebele. However, this one caught my eye on Flickr, especially the note on the cell phone!

Lafayette, we are here!

In July 1917, at the Paris tomb of the Marquis de Lafayette, one of General Pershing's aides acknowledged the 140-year-old debt America owed to the Marquis, who led French forces in aid of the American Revolution, and to the French. The speech heralded the [official] arrival of US forces to fight the Central Powers in WWI.

Today I felt the same exultation as the French may have felt, if in a much poorer cause, and more curious stimulus. I saw a convoy of ten utility trucks, seven of them huge cable-stringing cherry-picker rigs, rolling slowly up the road toward the town where I work, where several co-workers are still without power three days after a devastating storm last Tuesday evening. The trucks were marked "Pike Electric, Mt Airy NC", and had apparently rolled up from North Carolina in response to the local utility's call for help.

I'm sure that the Philadelphia utilities have sent their teams south during hurricane season for years: it was a pleasure to see the "debt" repaid in our time of need.

Leaving for South Africa

This evening we—my wife Judi and I—leave for Johannesburg, South Africa, to spend two weeks

• helping to build an additional building for the orphanage we visited last year;
• teaching “Vacation Bible School” (our term—in SA, it's called “Holiday Clubs”, falling as it does during the winter break) to somewhere between 7 and 300(?) kids in the community of Ivory Park, where the Tumelo Home is;
• arousing the interest of people in good news about the Servant King, Jesus, by drama and word (and possibly more free medical care: we have three nurses with us).

We need prayer for

• unity: we are all strong leaders, and serving one another requires a great work of Christ and His Spirit in our hearts;
• safety: Johannesburg is the crime capital of the galaxy;
• love: for each other and for those we hope to reach.

More as the trip progresses.