"you chose to act as if you had never been molded into civil society and had everything to begin anew. You began ill, because you began by despising everything that belonged to you." - Edmund Burke

Thank you David!
This time also I choose to start out with a quote. It is from Edmund Burke in Reflections on the Revolution in France, sitting on the other side of the pond becoming irate over what is happening in Paris. Could what seemed like turmoil ever end in something good? Fast changes rarely does as easy thought ideas never can be implemented over night. Social engineering is a dead end as people are much more than components in a machine. How then, we can ask ourselves, will the current fast-changing time we live in end?

My hope lies in that enough of us will defend the open society. The other great powers, whether economical, political or religious, does not have the fundamentals to do so. That is made clear by the fact that dissidents are effectively removed, murdered, whereas here we can have a say. This is something we must not take for granted. Listen to Sir Karl Popper on the paradox of freedom: "if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them".

Winter Downunda and summer here in Euroland. The sun sets at dusk and rises again at dawn. We are happy to live to witness it. A friend I made acquaintance during my first years in medical school, up in Umea in Northern Sweden, has recently passed away. Poison of Oneway. He is a well known figure in the Scandinavian c64 scene and will be missed. When I lived up there he was studying art, but often travelled during long periods, eastbound. I was however often glad to see him when he came back up north. As he came from down in Scania where I am from and despite being born in Poland he spoke with the clearest of Scanian accents. He went eastbound many a times, and in the end that is where he stayed. A salute to you Radek, you always followed your heart!

From death to life. My good friend and comrade in both group and staff, ZZAP69, has recently become a father to his second son. Congratulations!

I turn my eyes to the Harvard Gazette and my eyes rest when they see the title "Truth, beauty, goodness". In a new book Howard Gardner insists these three virtues will remain the crucial bedrock of our existence - even in light of postmodern skepticism and the side effects of technological advances on our attention spans and ways of thinking.

In an era of constant flux. Where online foras spam your mind with short films and there never is a shortage of multimedia input you risk becoming an illiterate. It takes time to contemplate. The disk magazines is a platform off line.

Enjoy this issue fifty-six.

Jonatan "Macx" FG.