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The winter’s past

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A winter’s tail may yet in spring
Be seen upon the wall
But mare’s tail found agathering
Where roses should be, all

The cold icicles of winter
have done their work in stone
Whilst rootlets in the earth prepared
to make their presence known

And we have felt the icy blast
With rain upon the head
But hearts with pleasant thoughts were warmed
And nothings only said.

Now to this day, as long ago,
We quickly do repair
Another year, the old doth wane,
Refresh you with due care!

Butterfly Flower, Bowling
1915 Charles Rennie Mackintosh – Fleming Collection

Not at the occident

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12/04/2023

Ukraine war: Leak shows Western special forces on the ground

Does it really matter who leaked them? What really matters is are they true? Are NATO troops involved in the war? Some may argue that it is OK to sell arms to Ukraine, even to give them, and continue to claim that we are not involved in the fighting, but when we are on the ground? Surely that claim, if it has not already done so by the provision of arms, falls flat?

…
According to the document, dated 23 March, the UK has the largest contingent of special forces in Ukraine (50), followed by fellow Nato states Latvia (17), France (15), the US (14) and the Netherlands
(1).The document does not say where the forces are located or what they are doing.
The numbers of personnel may be small, and will doubtless fluctuate. But special forces are by their very nature highly effective. Their presence in Ukraine is likely to be seized upon by Moscow, which has in recent months argued that it is not just confronting Ukraine, but Nato as well.
…
UK special forces are made up of several elite military units with distinct areas of expertise, and are regarded to be among the most capable in the world.
The British government has a policy of not commenting on its special forces, in contrast to other countries including the US.
The UK has been vociferous in its support of Ukraine, and is the second largest donor after the US of military aid to Kyiv.
US Defense(sic.) Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Department of Justice had opened a criminal investigation and he was determined to find the source of the leak.
“We will continue to investigate and turn over every rock until we find the source of this and the extent of it,” he said.

Steak knives

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11/04/2023 19:50

By Julian O’Neill

BBC News NI home affairs correspondent

‘Freddie Scappaticci denied he was the Army’s most high-ranking agent in the IRA during the Troubles.’

Stakeknife: Alleged Army agent in IRA Freddie Scappaticci dies

… Freddie Scappaticci, the man suspected of being Stakeknife, the Army’s top agent within the IRA, has died.
Mr Scappaticci, who was in his 70s, always denied he was Stakeknife. …

Why would he not be telling the truth even though it may be entirely casuistically? He was never the most high ranking agent in the IRA at all. There was another who held a much higher rank than Scappaticci did. It is his identity that has been successfully concealed by the investigations into Scappaticci and his own vehement denials.

Just criticism

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10/04/2023

China jails prominent legal activists Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi

The BBC reported that ‘in response to past criticism about its human rights record, Beijing has said “only the 1.3 billion* Chinese people have a say on China’s human rights”.’ It could well have added: ‘and if any of them exercise their right to have their say, we shall listen to them. In due time there shall be no more criticism’.

* A slight exaggeration may be seen to exist here. The number may be correct if an average lifespan were 50 years and the country had had a population of the current size for about seven times longer than history would allow, otherwise the figure should be 1.3 milliard, roughly 1‰ of the number quoted.

Do not follow this link

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Give them no ground…who would entice thee!

Do not follow this link!

You have probably seen them many times. Your friend posts an interesting photograph, you comment on it and so it is passed on to your friends who may have similar interests. Alongside the photograph there is a link. Are you curious? The algorithms used by social media being like a chameleon metamorphose as frequently as you say ‘Like’, but they are exceptionally efficient. They identify things that attract your attention, and then post more and more of that sort of detritus on your board. They can also be their own downfall. On a number of visits here I have seen a friend’s comments on an interesting matter – perhaps more interesting to my friend than to me, but what does that matter? It may be a cute cat or dangly dog, a growling grizzly or worried walrus, a celestial satellite or manic moon, a reckless rendezvous or hilarious happening, whatever may catch their attention and may possibly catch yours, and there alongside the image is a teasing little link. You may not notice it at first, but when you do? Do you think there might be more like this behind it? It is easy to find out, is it not? After all your friend’s friend posted it?

A little way down your notice board, you see the same picture. That is the algorithm at work. You have in the past expressed some interest in this kind of image, perhaps you lingered on something like it for too long (you had a text from someone and stopped at that point to read it – that was the mistake. The pause is an expression of interest, just as in the great department stores which are rapidly disappearing, the shop-floor assistants were watching out for that little nod of the head which shows you might be persuaded to buy that which caused your head to nod or something like it, and they pounce, not as a lion on its prey but as a tender kitten saying: Wouldn’t you like me to stay with you for a while? as it purred serenely by your feet, so the algorithm is watching you, every move you make on the page, everything you watch and linger on….but let us get back to the point.

You see the same picture, but it has been posted not by your friend’s friend but by someone else, and there is a little link next to it. You scroll back up. The link is different. The original post came from a different person in both cases, and those different persons belong to non-intersecting groups of friends. What is going on? Will you not now follow the link?

If you are of the kind who will follow links, try this one, but even if you are not…who knows what wonders you might espy?

Click on the image…..if you dare!

Taste and see

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Taste and see

The Psalmist said: —
    Taste and see +
    The Lord is good. +

Press on

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On the first January 19891 Philip asked us whether we were ready for a new year as men count years, but recognising that we are creatures of times, pressed this home upon us, as we consider the old year and the new year, how things are and how they ought to be, are we considering the most important thing? Moses considered the most important thing when he asked Jehovah to show him his glory. This is the most important thing: God himself. Do we consider that?

Two and thirty years later on the eighth August 20212 he asked another almost equally important question, having in mind that it is God himself who is at work in us:

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Prove yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless you are indeed disqualified (lit: fail the test). 2 Corinthians 13:5.

I did not hear him preach the first sermon until 34 years later some nine days after his death when his mother invited me to listen to his voice. Thirty months earlier I had been asked to provide a profile for a book of memories; of what use is a profile, I asked, once upon a time it mattered but what matters today is what only ever mattered fifty years ago: Do I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me (Philippians 3:12)?

This is the matter on which Philip preached less than two years before his departure from this world. Just as it had in 1969,so it continued to do in 1989 and 2021, eternity weighed heavily upon his heart. Are we ready, he asked? We may have had many wonderful experiences of the Lord in the past, but do you rest on them? Do you rely on them? Then you rely on ephemera. There is only one solid foundation. Are you in the faith. If you are in the faith then assay yourselves: prove that you are the real thing. Do not be satisfied with a substitute. You must be the real thing. And how do you know: Jesus Christ is in you consequently you will press on to lay hold of that for which he laid hold of you.

Do you press on? Past experiences as wonderful as they may have been do not prove it. You may have pressed on yesterday, but you cannot rest upon that. It is today that you must press on. If Jesus Christ has laid hold of you, you shall press on for he intends to present you faultless to his Father. But if you do not press on, remember Ignorance who upon arriving at the gate found that there was a way to hell, even from the gates of heaven, as well as from the City of Destruction.

The journey may be long and weary, we may face many difficulties in the way, but the one who died for sinners will not allow any of his flock to be lost. They will press on looking for the prize that he has promised, and upon arriving at the gates of heaven will look with love and wonder on the face of the Saviour for whom they have in the wilderness longed.

Sin, my worst enemy before,
Shall vex my eyes and ears no more;
My inward foes shall all be slain,
Nor Satan break my peace again.

Then shall I see, and hear, and know
All I desired or wished below;
And every power find sweet employ
In that eternal world of joy.

And then what triumphs shall I raise
To Thy dear name through endless days,
For in the realms of joy I’ll see
Thy face in full felicity.
Isaac Watts 1674-1748

  1. Show me thy glory | Sunday morning, January 1, 1989 | Passage: Exodus 34:6-7
  2. Test Yourselves | Sunday morning ,August 8, 2021 | Bible Text: 2 Corinthians 13:5 Some doubted Paul was an apostle but he turns it around and demands proof that they are true Christians.

A man of God

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And so it will be in the resurrection of the dead, we were sown in weakness, we shall be raised immortal.

PLC came into my life something over fifty years ago. Though he was a Welshman among Welshmen, emotional beyond degree, and a true ‘bachgen bach o Ferthyr erioed, erioed’, the serious side in his character would have made the dourness of the Scot look like the elation of a Zulu.

A sermon preached by Stephen Jarvis at Hebron Dowlais Evangelical Church on the 26 February could easily have been preached by him, indeed it crossed my mind,  had he asked Stephen to preach on this matter? The text was Ecclesiastes 7:1  A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of one’s birth. It was the second half of that verse that he took as his text. The prospect of death is for many uncomfortable, but as, inter alia, the life insurance companies will confirm it is inevitable.

Philip lived a tidy (I think that is the correct Welsh adjective) life in South Wales travelling up and down the valley each working day. He had a canny (as understood in Yorkshire) job in the University which afforded him much opportunity for friendship, frivolity and fun, whilst conducting the serious side of the business with the utmost attention to detail for the sake of the safety and security of those whom he served.

It was service that typified his life, at work, in the home and in the church with whom he worshipped. The words that Paul had spoken to Timothy weighed heavily upon him: Study! Apply yourself! Shew yourself approved as a teacher rightly explaining the word of truth.  He could not abide those who only took the word of God in order to support what they wanted to say. He understood that the minister’s job is to let the word of God take him to say what God wants to say.

In the early years that we knew each other when we came across a difficulty in the Word, and it is unnecessary perhaps to say that there are not a few, we would look at many different explanations, but all too often found that even the ‘experts’ often did not address the question that we had asked. We were driven to the original languages, or else, then, before we had internet searches, we would scan through, say, the City of God looking for something that Augustine had, or might have, said, asking ourselves and each other: What did he really say?

Needless to say to those who knew him, Philip soon far outstripped me in his understanding and his ability to articulate the different understandings of many of our great thinkers. Whilst some struggle to even hold the names of two contrary positions in their head, he not only held the names, but a compete description of both sides of the arguments in his head at the same time.  

He cannot now mind something being said about his personal devotion. He was a man who had heard Paul say to Timothy: You, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. He was always the first up at college, a good two hours before me however late the previous night had been. He would read, pray, then begin his study working meticulously almost word by word through the text. He had decided he would start at the beginning, the genesis of Genesis. It would take many years. But that part of his study did not prevent him from reading extensively. The daily train journeys when he started work were never wasted time, but an opportunity to read, and read he did. His son-in-law, running a bookshop, must surely delight in the library that Philip acquired.

Mention must be made of his memory, which had not only capacity for outstanding feats in theology, but also in the realm of humour. Often you would only know that the long story (examples are available) which he was relating was to pull your leg when you reached the final sentence, such was his ability to control his facial muscles. How did he remember the detail which made these stories so plausible?

When the lock-down came upon us just after the commencement of the recent viral outbreak and of a sudden we could not meet together to worship but only on-line, there was no panic at Hebron, Dowlais. For twenty five years Philip had recorded the services, extracting the hymn singing, meticulously cataloguing it and making collections of hymns available on tape and later more modern media for the housebound and sick. There was an almost complete set from the hymn book that they used available for use in the then on-line services.

Philip had become an elder in the church thirty-five years ago. He served the people well, and took the work of being one of the shepherds of the people seriously. They needed to be taught well. The teachers needed to be good, even exemplary, examples to them. He could not tolerate in himself any shortfall in what was expected of him. In his final months, which were characterised by much pain and suffering caused both by the treatment of and by the disease that had afflicted him, as the weakness of his body took over, he was greatly troubled. Paul speaks of this to the Corinthian church as his burden for the churches. The Lord had earlier spoken with Peter and asked, or was it told, him to feed the Lord’s flock. That is the work today of those who are recognised as elders in the church. Feed them with the word of God. But how could he then do it? The pain and the weakness that had taken hold of him prevented him from doing anything. It grieved his heart, though he knew that he was being asked then to learn the lessons that he knew were taught in the word of God.

For Philip whilst death was an enemy which separates us from those whom we love in this world, it was his death day on which the Lord would come and take him to the next. He would then be able to sing with cleaner hands and a purer heart than ever he knew in this world: My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine…if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

For fifty five years, after his conversion, he lived in the first two verses of Featherston’s hymn. For a brief time in the third, but now he has gone home, and lives in the fourth.

My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine; for thee all the pleasures of sin I resign;
my gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art thou; if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

2 I love thee because thou hast first loved me, and purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree;
I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow; if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

3 I’ll love thee in life, I will love thee in death, and praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath,
and say when the deathdew lies cold on my brow: If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

4 In mansions of glory and endless delight, I’ll ever adore thee in heaven so bright;
I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow: If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

He would want to ask you, dear reader, this question, will you follow, not him, but rather:
Will you follow the Lord Jesus Christ to the place that he has gone?

For examples of Philip’s humour with a gloss from Coco, who apologises for not being able to tell the stories as well as Philip could:
1 Steel works 2 The curious incident

On the job
Greeting
Across the generations
In the background
At attention
At home
A proud father
A proud father
At leisure
At leisure

Sermons from Hebron Dowlais pulpit:

AudioVideoTitle
Philip:
Utube
8 August 2021 pm 		Love From a Pure Heart
1 Timothy 1:5
Utube
8 August 2021 am 		Test Yourselves
2 Corinthians 13:5
5 November 2017 pm		Trusting God
Psalm 40:4a
5 November 2017 am		Making Known the Grace of God
2 Corinthians 8:1-7
25 December 2015 		The Impossibilities of Christmas
Luke 1:26-33
16 October 2011 		Our Every Affliction
2Corinthians 1:5-10
28 February 2010 		All for some
1Corinthians 9:22b
17 December 2006 		The mind of Christ
Philippians 2:5-11
18 December 2005 		God sent his Son
Galatians 4:4-5
19 December 2004 		The mother of my Lord
Luke 1:43
20 July 2003 		The Pharisee and the Publican
Luke 18:9-14
15 September 2002 		Firstborn Among Many Brethren
Romans 8:29
28 July 2002 		It is Time to Seek the Lord
Hosea 10:12b
6 January 2002 		A New Year’s Resolution
Psalm 27:4
27 August 2000 		Can God Deliver You?
Psalm 143:1-2
25 April 1999 		Waiting
John 5:8
28 December 1997 		Change and no change
Jude 3
14 September 1997 		Jude the obscure
Jude 1-2
20 July 1997 		Touch him!
Mark 8:22-26
3 November 1996 		Gaius the beloved
3 John 1
23 July 1995 		Peace for all
Ephesians 2:17-18
25 December 1994 		An old man’s testimony
1 John 1:1-3
17 April 1994 		Are you one of God’s elect?
John 6:37
26 December 1993 		Fear not
Isaiah 41:10
30 May 1993 		A fire alarm
Genesis 19:17
15 February 1992 		The Prince of Preachers
But not The Last of the Puritans
5 January 1992 		The goal of corporate maturity
Ephesians 4:13
29 July 1990 		Kiss the Son
Psalm 2:12
1 January 1989 		Show me thy glory
Exodus 34:67
Stephen Jarvis:
Utube
26 February 2023 		The day of death
Ecclesiastes 7:1
Philip’s funeral service shall take place on 22 March at 1030 in Merthyr

End-to-end Encryption

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Should we or shouldn’t we?

There are many different answers to the question:

WhatsApp: We won’t lower security for any government

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-62291328

Signal would ‘walk’ from UK if Online Safety Bill undermined encryption

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-64584001

What does Coco think?

Should we or shouldn’t we be allowed to use end-to-end encryption? The authorities will always argue that they need it for certain purposes – such high purposes as national security. Do they also need it for communication with the taxpayer? How high is the bar before it is permitted to be used? Do private citizens ever have the need to use it?

Perhaps private citizens do not need it. We happily speak to each other in the hearing of others all of the time without applying encryption to our voices, but one day whilst Coco was speaking with a client, he answered a telephone call. The conversion proceeded in English, until he had something to say that he did not want me to know. He then encrypted his message. Even his secretary could not decrypt it, but it was the mother tongue of the caller. We also go into quiet places for certain conversations, do we not? There are times when it is not appropriate for others to listen in to our conversation. When we used to write on paper to each other, we did not always use postcards, did we? No, we sealed our text into an envelope so that the proper recipient would know that there had been no interference.  

Now it is said that the UK Online Safety Bill has many good things about it which will help in the combat of crime and particular types of crime which otherwise would be hard to detect. I shall not address that here but a different aspect of its benefit.

The Online Safety Bill sounds to Coco like a wonderful new business opportunity. Is anybody out there ready to deliver the necessary software, please?

It seems likely that messaging apps will be required to scan and report on any malicious content in any message they send. This will be achieved it is suggested by scanning any message in its unencrypted form before it is sent. Should any disallowed content be found the messaging app will be required to report it to an appropriate authority.

It sounds good. We do not want the apps we use to be used to transmit harmful material. But many have recognised that as soon as it becomes possible to scan for anything one thing, then it is possible to scan for all things. Governments may require the apps to scan for illegal content, but what is illegal content? We may (note may) not have corrupt, despotic, immoral liars or cheats as leaders, but if they do exist, will they require scanning for words which might further defame the already defamed name of the leader? Will yet others require scanning for words which indicate disagreement with the current moral ethic? Will advertisers see the opportunity to ask, or place pressure upon, the owners of the messaging services to scan for words which would allow them to more easily target you in other market places (you may see that as a benefit)? Will the owners of the messaging apps start to scan for words which indicate discontent with the provider? Will the owners of the messaging apps see their own way to profit from the information that scanning provides? Well, you may answer: But they already do all of these things anyway. Perhaps they do, but then they are liars and cheats themselves for they speak to us about end-to-end encryption and declare that they cannot read what we write.

You may also say: Actually, I don’t care. When I used physical post I never used sealed envelopes, I always used postcards. Let the post man read it if he wants. And most of the time the post man did not want, apart from want to complete his shift. If they want to read my messages let them, and if it means they catch the bad guys, so much the better.

But, Coco suggests that you do care about privacy. In Facebook, do you place everything you post into the public arena, or do you restrict it to friends and followers? Let Coco also ask, do you ever use Facebook Messenger? In that you are speaking one to one with another user. If you did not care about the privacy of your message, why do you not post it in your journal openly?

So let Coco ask, once the door has been opened for scanning, how will you know for what is being scanned? Coco sought recently, and many years ago as well, to understand what had caused the blacklisting of an email account. No-one could say precisely as the spam scanners are so complex. Youtube scans videos that are uploaded for among other things copyrighted content. One that was recently uploaded was scanned and copyrighted material was found in it. It was there, but it was not a problem. The material however that had been found was incorrectly attributed to the wrong copyright holder, and the scan failed to find all of the copyrighted material. The scans do a job, and to some extent a good job, but do you not have to check your own spam folder just to be sure that there is nothing there that is not spam? Even government departments will warn you that some of their messages to you may be treated as spam. The scans we could say are capricious. If our incoming scans are capricious, will not the outgoing one be also?

So, thinking about a particular class of images, we may have problems with images produced for medical purposes, where perhaps the patient is in need of urgent attention. If the messaging app scan determines that the image is of a proscribed type, what will the consequence be? Will it refuse to send it and then report it? If it cannot be sent, the patient may not receive the correct treatment for whatever condition is indicated by the image. How long will it take to have the image released? The doctor may even find himself unable to carry on providing treatment if an allegation is raised under safeguarding legislation.

Similar consideration may be applied to images sent out of a disaster or war zone for they may be sent for good or bad purposes. How can the scanning distinguish the purpose or the sending of the image? Will all of the class be put on detention because one boy, unknown to the others, wrote on the blackboard?

But perhaps a greater problem is that the more complex the scanning routines become, the more easily malicious actors will be able to place their own malicious pre-entry scans into them, perhaps not merely scanning what is there but inserting their own content as well. Do you not recall seeing messages at the foot of emails such as:  ‘E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses’.

So, what we need then to avoid these problems is an crypting app which will encrypt our messages before we hand them over to the messaging app, which then sends our already encrypted message. The crypting app will then unencrypt the message at the other end for the recipient. This crypting app will not need to send any messages, as it is not a messaging app, so it should not fall under the scrutiny of the regulator. It will give you the necessary key, or allow you to define your own, to share with your correspondent for any particular conversation, period of time, or message by message, or you may have permanent keys for particular correspondents saved into both your copy of the app and your correspondents, depending upon the level of security you may desire.

You may be able to use the crypting app with a single messaging app, sending both one key and the encrypted message over it, or use two messaging apps one for the key, the other for the encrypted message, or perhaps have the key encoded into an image. We assume of course that the recipient already has the second key.

In the meantime, and in the absence of such an app, please encrypt any messages to Coco using PureChocolate as the lock on: https://moffattfamily.org.uk/htm/purechocolate/encryptor/index.htm. Please do not forget to provide a copy of the key that you use to turn the lock, else your message shall be lost forever – or at least for as long as it takes to get to the top of the heap of one of the guardians of the net, but then that may only be one day less than forever.

W&U*\Dp{r0w_npqNMsU.2u#c,`4n(]0(_npve?oU/9w']wk+'xU4iRxhsOY*Z#:s*i6XDuwh'(_u'vHHDel5d,[6p5|(Z1zixldK8xN8Ak'c6X4k(W1uTtn#[>*]#@l2n%\Domf'6

MlU0vS3W#en*\'stm@lZ&ur[MvP%2#2_6Z5u|f#lTi{#TH}L&3/<R-kD p].{_&P#T0%e,2d"n%\9zi['{ilyrTM%V/W#__yfDim]0oisluL;%ey;#'^we/tih'(Tjlde8}e/;o'[{c?'|c@lZ&zrsM

Finally, Coco is not advocating the use of such a crypting app, merely trying to say that what is proposed will not catch the bad guys but may defeat some of what the good guys want to and must do. The good guys have nothing to hide. The bad guys will simply build a better wall behind which to hide what they wish to hide.