Branching Out with Pictures

Today is Christmas 2011 and I thought I would add some pictures to various pages today.  All these pictures were taken in the last couple days while I'm spending the holiday with Mark Edward in LA.  Nothing is skeptical related, but the skills of uploading to Wikicommons and adding pictures onto pages is something to keep up on.

Tim Farley has often advised me to spread out my edits to not only skeptical issues, from time to time work on edits to your hometown, your school, books whatever interests you.  This makes other editors take your work seriously as you won't appear to be a one-trick-pony. 

This was a change of pace and quite fun.  Here is my Wikimedia Common's contribution page. 

I added pictures to...

Heritage Square Museum - actually I had uploaded most of the images on the page in January 2010.  Tonight I changed many images and added one or two more.  Heritage Square Before

Little Tokyo just added the friendship knot sculpture

Bradbury Building I added a few images (one was taken down already) and changed out some that I thought were dull.  Bradbury Building before.

Chinatown was a lot of fun, bright colors.  I got rid of a dull picture and added mine instead.  Chinatown before.

Added the close-up picture here of a shelf in a Botanica.  This was directly across the street from the Bradbury Building.  I didn't openly take this picture, but had my camera in my hands and snapped just whatever.  Got some great images this way.  I decided that I would only add the one image that I cropped in even further. 

The MOCA page you would think would have better images.  I added the night scene of the downtown buildings with the airplane sculpture.  The next time I visit this place I'm going to get better images of the building.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology badly needed images.  The mouse on toast picture they had was blurry.  This isn't a place for amateur photographers.  The museum is in near darkness except for the exhibits, and no flash photography is allowed.  I love my camera, the lens I purchased allows me to shoot in low light and I use the "sports" setting on my camera always.  This works great indoors and out.  If you click on the images you will see that mine are still a bit blurry, they are lucky they have images at all.  I must go back and shoot a better main image.  Here is the page when I found it this afternoon.  Extra points if you can find Mark Edward in one of the images.

Lastly I added a picture taken on Bunker Hill.  We took a ride on the Angles Flight tram.  According to the article there was a death on the tracks a few years ago, wonder if there is a ghost still lingering.  Bet we could get a local ghost hunting group out to use their little meters to tell us.

I know this isn't very guerrilla skeptic focused.  But editing Wikipedia should be fun, work on the pages you enjoy. Pull out your photo albums, I bet you already have a bunch of needed images.  Don't wait for your next vacation, look at the Wikipedia pages of places you pass every day, bet they need some updated pictures.   We really are trying to improve Wikipedia overall. 

Academic Successes in Cluster Computing

Posted by Alfred Spector, VP of Research

Access to massive computing resources is foundational to Research and Development. Fifteen awardees of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Cluster Exploratory Service (CLuE) program have been applying large scale computational resources donated by Google and IBM.

Overall, 1,328 researchers have used the cluster to perform over 120 million computing tasks on the cluster and in the process, have published 49 scientific publications, educated thousands of students on parallel computing and supported numerous post-doctoral candidates in their academic careers. Researchers have used the program for such diverse fields as astronomy, oceanography and linguistics. Besides validating MapReduce as a useful tool in academic research, the program has also generated significant scientific knowledge.

Three years later, there are many viable, affordable alternatives to the Academic Cloud Computing Initiative, so we have decided to bring our part of the program to a close. It has been a great opportunity to collaborate with IBM, the NSF and the many universities on this program. It was state-of-the-art four years ago when it was started; now, Academic Cloud Computing is a worldwide phenomena and there are many low-cost cloud computing options that provide viable alternatives to the Academic Cloud Computing Initiative.

It's been a long journey...

Several weeks ago, after enjoying some takeout Chinese food, I found the message above inside a fortune cookie.  The aphorism (attributed to Lao Tsu in the 6th century B.C.) was particularly meaningful to me, because on December 22, 2007 I used that phrase as the introduction to my first post on TYWKIWDBI.

So today is our fourth blogiversary.  I find it particularly ironic that I started this blog as a way to save time ("Gee, instead of emailing stuff I find to my friends, I can just post it in a blog and they can read it whenever they want; that would save me a lot of time.")  Let this serve as a warning to those of you who are incipient bloggers - the process expands to fill all the time allotted to it and more.

Today I'm going to celebrate the occasion by taking time off - probably a week.  I have family activities to attend to, a deskful of end-of-the-year paperwork to organize, and some other hobbies that have been neglected.  And a DVD of Civilization IV Gold that has been staring at me...

Those who are dismayed at not having new TYWK-type material to peruse this week should take advantage of the right sidebar, where you can pick a category to consume, or better yet go to the archive and select a month before you discovered this blog, and work your way backward from there.  Some of the old links will have undergone linkrot, but most are still good, and the material is for the most part equivalent to what I've posted recently.

Additional questions from the 107th annual King Williams College General Knowledge Quiz

Last week I posted three sets of questions from this storied annual quiz.  Readers here solved about 3/4 of them.  Here are an additional four sets of questions of varying degrees of complexity -

1. In the year 1911
1. What disaster befell the Asch building ?
2. What was removed from the Salon Carré ?
3. Whose stencilled letters included A, B, C, D, O & L?
4. Where were the twin clocks started at George’s crowning moment ?
5. Who wrote of a multitalented peer and the Warden’s grand-daughter ?
6. Who explained how the squaws caused pallor in the Jesuit Preachers ?
7. Who shot to fame during a performance of the Tale of Tsar Sultan ?
8. Who took pole position ahead of British opposition ?
9. Who silently portrayed Marguerite Gauthier ?
10. Who agreed to receive £400 per annum ?

3.
1. Who found a cut above in coping with melancholy ?
2. Which of Bolingbroke’s nephews was the celebrated patron of early exploration ?
3. Who wrote about a harpsichordist and a pioneer aviator and won gold in Stockholm ?
4. Who, by virtue of his marriage, was required to expel all Jews who failed to convert to ‘New Christians’ ?
5. Who allied his army with that of the deposed Sultan, but died in his attempt to conquer the Moorish infidels ?
6. Which theologian, although numerically misplaced, was an authority on both ophthalmology and gynaecology ?
7. Who had the captain of the Concepción decapitated, then drawn and quartered, for mutiny at Puerto San Julian ?
8. Whose support of Pedro in his tussle with his brother necessitated escape in a wine barrel ?
9. Who, as Queen dowager of one country, became regent in the country of her birth ?
10. Who disobeyed his Prime Minister and surrendered on 19 December ?

11.
1. Who took on three regencies ?
2. Which consort outlived the King by 61 years ?
3. Who steered behind the umbrella on Lake Maggiore ?
4. Who received details of the School of Pain from her invalid cousin ?
5. Whose love for one was like the foliage in the woods, but for the other resembled the eternal rocks beneath ?
6. Whose love letter included the words “I wode you war wythe me now that you mouthe se wat pane I take yn wruteg to you” ?
7. What request received the response “what, in the midst of the street?” ?
8. Whose canine collection included items about clouds and sky ?
9. Whose dancing is likened to a jelly on a plate ?
10. Who recently excluded obedience ?

17. Which character rhymed:
1. tussle and muscle ?
2. knowledge, he and apology ?
3. Chamberlain and moral stain ?
4. kindred soul and sausage-roll ?
5. everybody earns and income-tax returns ?
6. wrote of Queen Anneand Sodor and Am ?
7. Parliamentary hiveand or Conservative ?
8. been acuter and simple pewter ?
9. lots o’news and hypoteneuse ?
10. Horace and Morris ?

As always, discerning the underlying "theme" of each set will help solve the more difficult ones.  Feel free to offer answers and ideas in the Comments, but unlike last week and unlike last year, I'm not going to be curating the comments - I have family matters to attend to instead.

Those who really enjoy the challenge of this quiz can find the full set of 180 questions at the website of King Williams College, along with the questions - and answers - from the four previous years.  Or you can view them in today's Guardian.


p.s. - Fletcher, if you're reading this, set #3 is perfect for you and the readers of your blog. 
Photo:  stained glass window from KWC on the Isle of Man, credit Don McPhee, via The Guardian.

The "talking dog" - YouTube's top video for 2011

YouTube link. 

I must have blogged this before, but can't find it.  In any case it's worth a repost.  Enjoy.

Via The Guardian, which has links to the other 9 top videos of the year.

Perfect camouflage

This is a lined leaf-tailed gecko (Uroplatus lineatus) from Madagascar.  It looks for all the world like a model of a gecko carved from wood.  That's the camouflage it has evolved to survive in a bamboo forest.  Very cool.

Photo credit: David d'O, via Electric Orchids.

Source of the bluestones

According to Wired Science, geologists in Great Britain have used petrographic techniques to establish with reasonable certainty the exact source of the bluestones used to construct the inner circle at Stonehenge.

They found the culprit on a 65-metre-long outcropping called Craig Rhos-y-Felin, near Pont Saeson in north Pembrokeshire. It lies approximately 160 miles from the Stonehenge site.

The question remains though, as to how neolithic people transported huge chunks of rock from Wales to Wiltshire, some 5,000 years ago. Some historians reckon that these stone age builders quarried the stones in Pembrokeshire and brought them over to England, while others argue that giant glacial shifts moved the stones, hundreds of thousands of years earlier.

Trailer for the upcoming Hobbit movie

YouTube link.

Hammocks, barbecues, and vomiting-sticks

Smithsonian has an article on the history and legacy of the Taino (the inhabitants of Hispaniola who greeted Columbus on his arrival).

If you have ever paddled a canoe, napped in a hammock, savored a barbecue, smoked tobacco or tracked a hurricane across Cuba, you have paid tribute to the Taíno, the Indians who invented those words...

The object in the embedded photo?  That's a Taino vomiting stick carved from a manatee bone, and decorated with a bat.  They used it to "cleanse" themselves before partaking of hallucinogenic drugs.  Which I suppose makes it a fore-runner of the modern tongue blade.

Regarding the "fluidity" of window glass

It's not a fluid.  Fuck Yeah Fluid Dynamics debunks the myth that because glass is an amorphous solid, over a prolonged period of time it can behave as a slowly-moving fluid.

The observation that old panes of glass tend to be thicker at the bottom is usually used as evidence that glass flows over the centuries, but this assumes that the glass was flat to begin with. However, glassblowers at the time usually made panes by spinning molten glass to create a round, mostly even flat, which was then cut to fit. Although spinning made the glass mostly flat, the edges of the disc tended to be thinner. When installed, the glass was typically placed thicker side down for stability purposes. One researcher even calculated the time period necessary for glass to flow and deform at ordinary temperatures as 10^32 years—longer than the age of the universe. 

The most extensive discussion I've found of this subject is at this link.

Photo - 12th century window at Chateau de Beynac.  Credit Vincent van der Pas.

It takes a biting and keeps on writing

In the 1960s, television commercials for Timex watches featured John Cameron Swayze reporting that the watch "takes a licking and keeps on ticking."  The commercials showed the watch being subjected to a variety of abuses.

At the right is a worthy counterpart.  This felt-tip pen was removed via fiberoptic gastroscopy from the stomach of a 76-year-old woman.  It had been in her stomach for 25 years, but after removal it was still functional.  It makes one wonder whether she was achlorhydric, but the report at the British Medical Journal does not comment on the acidity of her stomach (CT scan at the link).  Via Neatorama. 

And for you young whippersnappers who don't remember the early years of television, here's a sample Timex commercial.  Notice that it's two minutes long.

YouTube link.

A Christmas message from an unexpected source

I found this [in 2008] at a European website reporting on the "alternative Christmas message" broadcast by Channel 4 that year. I've edited it for length, and trimmed some of the phraseology to disguise the speaker. 

See if you can guess who wrote this and delivered it on television Christmas evening (videos available on YouTube).  The more perspicacious among you may recognize the source or remember the event.  My posting of this message may offend some TYWKIWDBI readers, but I hope it will prompt some deeper reflection in others - especially at this time of year.

"[God] created every human being with the ability to reach the heights of perfection. He called on man to make every effort to live a good life in this world and to work to achieve his everlasting life…

Jesus, the Son of Mary, is the standard-bearer of justice, of love for our fellow human beings, of the fight against tyranny, discrimination and injustice…

"Now as human society faces a myriad of problems and a succession of complex crises, the root causes can be found in humanity's rejection of that message, in particular the indifference of some governments and powers towards the teachings… of Jesus Christ.

"The crises in society, the family, morality, politics, security and the economy which have made life hard for humanity and continue to put great pressure on all nations have come about because… some leaders are estranged from God…

"If Christ were on earth today, undoubtedly He would hoist the banner of justice and love for humanity to oppose… terrorists… the world over…

"Today, the general will of nations is calling for fundamental change… demands for a return to human values are fast becoming the foremost demands of the nations of the world.

"The response to these demands must be real and true. The prerequisite to this change is a change in goals, intentions and directions…

"We believe Jesus Christ will return… and will lead the world to love, brotherhood and justice.

"The responsibility of all followers of Christ… is to prepare the way for the fulfilment of this divine promise and the arrival of that joyful, shining and wonderful age…

"Once again, I congratulate one and all on the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ. I pray for the New Year to be a year of happiness, prosperity, peace and brotherhood for humanity. I wish you every success and happiness."

Give up?  The answer is at the Belfast Telegraph.  Reposted for Christmas 2011.

How to prune a Christmas tree

YouTube link. 

An educational video about the tools and techniques for pruning some of the standard species of Christmas trees.  Appears to be an older video, but it's probably not out of date in terms of botanical information.

A hat tip to rip122 for the link.

William B. Davis ~ Page Makeover

Back in late October 2011 I wrote this article about improving William B. Davis's Wikipedia page.  I wouldn't really have cared about his stub page except for the fact that he is one of our skeptical spokespeople.  I hadn't known this before until I accidentally stumbled across an interview he gave where he credited skeptic Barry Beyerstein for introducing him to the skeptical community.  (I had Beyerstein on Google Alert which is how I discovered the interview) Once I discovered this fact, I knew I had to clean up his page.

So I looked around and added all the skeptical references I could find.  Then got my friend Brian Engler to upload a really nice image of Davis leaning on the CSICON podium.  I started making changes here and there and also contacted Davis on Facebook.

He was more than helpful.  I got all kinds of links from him as well as pictures.  Tonight I'm launching his page, along with the "before".  I think you will really be amazed at the changes.

Here is a bit of knowledge I picked up along the way.

One idea I had was to make his page a DYK page as they allow brand new pages as well as expanded stubs as candidates for the front page of Wikipedia.  What I didn't realize at the time was that by making changes to the "live" page and then waiting a few weeks and adding more and then a bit more I was taking the page out of the running.  The rule is that the page needs to expand "5 fold" and have at least 850 words (not counting citations, charts and captions).

If I had not made any changes to the page when I first approached it, and then did all the work on my user page (or sandbox) and then copied/paste/saved the page live I would have expanded the page 5-fold.  Adding bit by bit to the live page erased that condition.

Coping the page and pasting it on my user page enabled me to be able to work "off-line".  I was able to make changes to the page without having to give a reason for each change.  Also when I copy/paste/saved the page back "live" it will be with a fresh history.  Only showing the one edit where it is completely done.

Tim Farley looked the page over as well as Dustin and Lei and helped with some spelling and so on.  Tim changed the page from going to a redirect page for William Davis - Premier of Ontario page to a disambiguation page for William Davis people. 

Tim also wrote a code that kept my user page from being searchable whenever anyone typed in "William B. Davis" into a search engine.  Only people with the URL could now find the page.

I also wasn't familiar with IMDB, I looked at Martin Landau's WP page and discovered how that editor made a chart for all the film credits Landau had.  I went into "edit" and copied all the text on Landau, pasted them into Davis's page and through trial and error changed everything.  It took a long long time to type all that info into Davis's page.  In the end I learned a lot about making charts.  Learn by doing!

Another problem I ran into over and over with his film credits was that some shows had WP pages, others didn't and some "linked" to WP pages, but not the correct WP page.  I know there is a short-cut bot out there on WP that will fix these problems quickly.  But I don't know how to use it.  What I did for every title, person and place was to put the name into WP's search.  I could then make the edit for the hyperlink to go to the correct page.  (blog explaining how to do this in detail). 

The reason I went to all this trouble was three-fold.  Firstly anyone who is going to credit Barry Beyerstein with anything is going to touch a soft spot in my heart.  Secondly the whole idea of the We Got your Wiki Back! project is to make sure that when people venture over to our spokespeople's pages they can see that they have well-written and cared for pages.  Thirdly William B. Davis is famous.  He receives about 4-5 thousand hits a month to his page.  That means potentially 4-5 thousand people will be reading about Beyerstein, Skepticism, CSICOP and the critical thinking quotes that I left.  A total win for skepticism!

Not all of our spokespeople are going to make such an impact, Davis we know for sure will.  Who knows who might be next?  I'm not privy to everyones schedules.  Tomorrow Ben Radford might score an amazing interview on CNN and the world will be looking at his page, will it be ready?  Does it reflect well on skepticism? Does it appear that Radford is respected in his community?  In his case, the answer is "yes".  But so many of our spokespeople are lacking great pages.

I'm not sure where I will be focusing my Wiki eye tomorrow, but if you have a suggestion or would like to help with this project and don't know where to start, please contact me.  susangerbic@yahoo.com


William B. Davis page the first time I saw it

William B. Davis page after the We Got Your Wiki Back! project

Added Dec 25, 2011
Just finished listening to Jacob Fortin's "The Good Atheist" podcast whom interviewed Davis a few days ago.  Very funny how this interview happened and its link to the page make-over.  I'm going to submit the story to the IIG's www.theoddsmustbecrazy.com site.  Take a look.

Also took the interview with Fortin and gleaned the best quotes about Dawkins and John Mack and created a citation back to the podcast.  This is how it is supposed to work folks.   Get as much information out there for the world to follow back to our skeptical content.  We need to have each other's backs as well.   http://www.thegoodatheist.net/2011/12/22/the-good-atheist-podcast-episode-154/

----------------------

This just in.  Received this message a few minutes ago on my "talk page"

"William B. Davis is fantastic, your edits made a huge difference in quality! Nicely done! You should put it up for Good Article status! Not sure if you're aware, but there are some great article checking tools here

 

Dreadstar ☥ 19:58, 25 December 2011 (UTC)" 

That was a really welcome message.  Usually I cross my fingers whenever I see that I have a new message on my talk page, and say to myself "what did I do wrong now"?

So I followed the instructions Dreadstar gave and read everything I could find about what is a "good article" and how to nominate the page.  Apparently a Good Article is something that if approved will appear at the top of the discussion page.  Only one in every 250 WP articles are considered "good articles" (I would think that would be a bigger spread, but they are counting ALL WP pages, not just the paranormal pages I keep running into)

I nominated the page, now I wait as there is quite a back-log.  An editor will be in touch to review the page and offer suggestions to improve the page.  I guess I have 7 days from that time to make the changes.  It gets reviewed again and again and if approved then it will get the special attention as a "good article" They have a page devoted to "good articles" so it will join that.  I have the page listed under "the Arts" which is Davis's main claim to fame. 

There is an even higher honor apparently, one called the "featured article" page.  This is for pages that are the Best of Wikipedia. Only one in 100 pages are featured articles.  Guess I have some new goals for 2012.  I'm a competitive sort, and want my gold star!

Why cookies and crackers have tiny holes

A column at The Atlantic provides a history of the Oreo cookie, which will mark its 100th anniversary this coming year.  Lots of info there re the design and history, including this interesting morsel:

The practice of punching holes in biscuits is known as "docking," and has been done by bakers for centuries in order to prevent uneven puffiness and promote flat crispness. According to British cookery writer Elizabeth David, a pre-mechanization docker was "a dangerous-looking utensil consisting of sharp heavy spikes driven into a bun-shaped piece of wood."

The etymology of the word docking appears to be unknown:

According to the Oxford English Dictionary... the origin of this word as it relates to biscuit-making is unknown. The first use of this term in print is dated 1840. In 1875 "The biscuit was then docked, that is, pierced with holes by an instrument adapted to the purpose...A stamping or docking frame..."

The image at the top is a painting of "An hexagonal ship's biscuit, painted with a picture of a warship within a lifebelt inscribed 'H.M.S. LANCASTER'," via the National Maritime Museum.  Beneath that is the modern custard cream.

Egypt's cultural history is burning

Egyptian protesters try to salvage valuable books and documents from the Egyptian Scientific Complex... 

Photo: Nasser Nasser / AP 

Egyptian book restoration officials classify burnt and damaged books which were saved from the research center... Photo: Amr Nabil / AP

Photos and excerpts from the AP story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

CAIRO (AP) — Volunteers in white lab coats, surgical gloves and masks stood on the back of a pickup truck Monday along the banks of the Nile River in Cairo, rummaging through stacks of rare 200-year-old manuscripts that were little more than charcoal debris. The volunteers, ranging from academic experts to appalled citizens, have spent the past two days trying to salvage what's left of some 192,000 books, journals and writings, casualties of Egypt's latest bout of violence.

Institute d'Egypte, a research center set up by Napoleon Bonaparte during France's invasion in the late 18th century, caught fire during clashes between protesters and Egypt's military over the weekend. It was home to a treasure trove of writings, most notably the handwritten 24-volume Description de l'Egypte, which began during the 1798-1801 French occupation.

The compilation, which includes 20 years of observations by more than 150 French scholars and scientists, was one of the most comprehensive descriptions of Egypt's monuments, its ancient civilization and contemporary life at the time.

The Description of Egypt is likely burned beyond repair. Its home, the two-story historic institute near Tahrir Square, is now in danger of collapsing after the roof caved in...

At a news conference Monday, a general from the country's ruling military council said an investigation was under way to find who set the building on fire. State television aired images of men in plainclothes burning the building and dancing around the fire Saturday afternoon. Protesters also took advantage of the fire, using the institute's grounds to hurl firebombs and rocks at soldiers atop surrounding buildings.

We know what will follow.  The protesters will blame the military, the military will blame the protesters, and the truth will never be known.  But we all know that incidents like this are often covers for rampant theft and looting.  Personally, I have no doubt that a lot of valuable books, maps, and manuscripts will be finding their way into private collections.

The discussion thread at Reddit raises a number of crucial points, including the extremely complex question of repatriating archaeological artifacts to their original locations, and digitizing historic material before the items are lost.

Israel's other demographic problem

The Palestinian situation gets all the international press coverage, but an article in The National Interest suggests that the demographics of the ultraorthodox population represents an equally troublesome "time bomb."

A recent report compiled by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics makes some projections looking out nearly fifty years, to 2059. The report separates out for the first time in any such official public reckoning the growth of the ultra-Orthodox population, which has a significantly higher birth rate than other Israeli Jews. The ultra-Orthodox currently make up about ten percent of Israeli society but by 2059 are projected to constitute over thirty percent.

The disproportionate growth of the Haredim, as the ultra-Orthodox are also called, has severe implications for Israeli society and the Israeli economy. About 60 percent of ultra-Orthodox men do not work for a living. They spend their time in religious study at yeshivas while they and their fast-growing families subsist on government stipends. This already constitutes a major burden on the remainder of Israelis and is a contributor to the economic discomfort that stimulated widespread demonstrations earlier this year... The ultra-Orthodox also are not subject to the same military service requirements as other Israeli Jews, constituting another area where the burden is all the greater on the others. Then there is the effect on social mores and freedoms. The growing influence of the ultra-Orthodox has already raised issues regarding the status and liberties of Israeli women. A further expansion of that influence will make Israel an ever more illiberal place.

Clearly these trends present Israel with a very serious challenge to its vitality and even to its survival as a society recognizable and acceptable to most of its current citizens. A major question is whether the privileges and influence of the Haredim can be curbed before they become so large a proportion of the population that curbing is no longer politically thinkable... When an ultra-Orthodox rabbi suggested last year that full-time, government-financed religious study should be reserved only for exceptionally promising scholars who are groomed to be rabbis or religious judges and that other ultra-Orthodox men should “go out and earn a living,” he was so vehemently denounced by his own political party, the ultra-Orthodox Shas, that he had to be assigned a bodyguard.

More at the link, via The Daily Dish.

Woman who saved benefits is convicted of fraud

A story from Plymouth, England -

A mentally-ill woman who saved some of her benefits as a nest-egg for her old age has been convicted of benefit fraud. Had Pauline Ford, 58, spent the money on anything at all, she would have committed no offence. But because she lived frugally and saved for a rainy day, while continuing to claim benefits, she has been hit with a double punishment. She has been forced to repay more than £28,000 and received a suspended prison sentence.

Jo Martin, prosecuting, told Plymouth Crown Court that prior to 2005, Ford received incapacity benefit and disabled living allowance, neither of which were means-tested, and housing and council tax benefits, which were. In 2005, she applied for housing and council tax benefits without declaring that she had saved around £15,000-£16,000 from her previous benefits. In 2008, she applied for income support – another means-tested benefit – but failed to declare that she had by now saved £21,000, which she had invested in a Nationwide fixed bond.

...claimants were entitled to hold savings of £3,000 to £16,000, but received lower benefits on a sliding scale.

Ali Rafati, for Ford, said his client had a learning disability and had been admitted to mental health units for up to three months at a time. He said: "Miss Ford became very worried about how she would cope in old age. "For many years she has been living on a shoestring in a rusty mobile home with her 15 year-old dog, saving money for her old age...

Mr Rafati added: "She has now paid back £6,000 more than she saved.

This story presents a variety of social, economic, and moral considerations to ponder.  I'll offer it without comment.  Some additional details at the Plymouth Herald, via Nothing To Do With Arbroath.

Christmas tree 1955

As one comment at Shorpy indicated, this tree wasn't "scrawny" in 1955 - this was a standard configuration in the era before trees were groomed in the field by mechanical pruners. The current generation of trees are remarkably dense and attractive, but the ornaments tend to rest on the branches rather than hang from them.

(From December 2008.  Reposted because a tree that I transplanted into our woods 6-7 years ago is now this same size and has about this shape.  In semi-shady woods I think vertical growth is more advantageous than thickening for young trees that want to capture more of the available light.  I place a string of solar-powered Christmas lights on the tree "for the critters" (enough sunlight penetrates the woods in winter to power the setup, but the solar collector can't be stuck in the ground - it has to be a couple feet up to avoid being covered by snow).

Marilyn Monroe's remarkable body

Not what you're thinking.  And not the hips.   What was truly remarkable about her (and many of her contemporaries) was her small waist.

Herewith some excerpts from an essay at Bloomberg by Virginia Postrel, offering her observations following the public showing and auction of Debbie Reynolds' collection of Hollywood costumes and memorabilia.

Monroe was, in fact, teeny-tiny...

The auction’s top-ticket item was Monroe’s famous white halter dress from “The Seven Year Itch,” the one that billowed up as the subway passed... Monroe’s costume was displayed on a mannequin that had been carved down from a standard size 2 to accommodate the tiny waist. Even then, the zipper could not entirely close...

In fact, the average waist measurement of the four Monroe dresses was a mere 22 inches, according to Lisa Urban, the Hollywood consultant who dressed the mannequins and took measurements for me. Even Monroe’s bust was a modest 34 inches...

The other actresses’ costumes provided further context. “It’s like half a person,” marveled a visitor at the sight of Claudette Colbert’s gold-lame “Cleopatra” gown (waist 18 inches)...

At my request, Urban took waist measurements on garments worn by 16 different stars, from Mary Pickford in 1929 (20 inches) to Barbra Streisand in 1969 (24 inches). The thickest waist she found was Mae West’s 26 inches in “Myra Breckinridge,” when the actress was 77 years old...

And I always leave more at the link.

Addendum:  Postrel provided specific data in a post at Deep Glamour.

Quotes from Christopher Hitchens

Selected from a larger collection assembled at 22 Words.

• The finest fury is the most controlled.

• Nonintervention does not mean that nothing happens. It means that something else happens.

• I apply the Abraham Lincoln test for moral casuistry: “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” Well, then, if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.

• Name me an ethical statement made or an action performed by a believer that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer.

• The essence of tyranny is not iron law. It is capricious law.

• We do not rely solely upon science and reason, because these are necessary rather than sufficient factors, but we distrust anything that contradicts science or outrages reason. We may differ on many things, but what we respect is free inquiry, openmindedness, and the pursuit of ideas for their own sake.

• Alcohol makes other people less tedious, and food less bland, and can help provide what the Greeks called entheos, or the slight buzz of inspiration when reading or writing.

• Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.

Real honey

Previous posts here have addressed the problems with the smuggling of tainted honey and the possibly ominous implications of ultrafiltered honey.  After writing that last post, we decided to see if a better honey could be found locally.

The embedded photos show our success in that regard.  It did not require a visit to Whole Foods.  A perusal of the shelves of a local supermarket (Woodmans in our case) yielded a locally-grown product with the proper credentials. 

The local beekeepers are clearly aware of the considerations we mentioned in the previous posts, because they have specifically indicated on the labels that the honey is not filtered except for gross particulates and is not watered down with high fructose corn syrup.

I'm not trying to promote this specific product, because obviously your success will depend on what's available in your area.  But I can say that our family has purchased its last "plastic bear."  Next summer when we go to the farmers' market for produce, we'll see what other local honeys might be available.

Addendum: A hat tip to Dora for this comment:

Rebuttal article by NPR titled "Relax Folks. It Really Is Honey After All."  Saying, basically, that the worries are unfounded, the ultrafiltration is to help keep honey from going solid, and that Chinese honey isn't dangerous, just much cheaper than that grown in the US. Worth a read. 

One sentence caught my eye:

Food Safety News is published by a lawyer who represents plaintiffs in lawsuits against food manufacturers and processors.

Re the rest, I recommend reading the NPR link - and the comments at that link.

A sixteenth-century I.O.U.

Archaeology explains the use of a "tally stick."

Imagine going to the local store in Wittenberg, Germany, in the midsixteenth century and not having enough cash to pay for the pig you wanted to roast for dinner. You might have to borrow some money and, in order to record your debt, the person making the loan would use a tally stick like this one. The stick was notched in the presence of both the lender and the borrower and then split in two, so that each person retained half. According to Andreas Hille, the state archaeologist responsible for Wittenberg, the contours of the stick and the distinct split guaranteed that only these two particular halves could be fit back together—insurance against anyone trying to cheat by adding more notches. When the borrower was ready to repay his debt, the two halves were put back together. The stick was then thrown away or destroyed.

Coriolanus (2012) and 58 other trailers

YouTube link. 

Trailers for 59 movies due to be released next year have been posted in a thread at Reddit.  I didn't have time to look at many, but thought Coriolanus was worth an embed (it reminds me of Ian McKellen's 1995 portrayal of Richard III).

"The Woman in Black" might be good.  Please leave a note in the comments if you find other trailers you think are worth a peek.

Forgotten victims of the recession

From the StarTribune:

From the Twin Cities to Tower, the northeastern Minnesota community where four horses were found dead on a dilapidated farm in March, horses have fallen victim to changing economics and rural demographics. Hay and fuel prices are up, interest in 4-H activities is diminishing and the role of horses in plowing fields is virtually gone.

While horse neglect usually runs in cycles dependent on economics, said University of Minnesota veterinarian Dr. Krishona Martinson, this is the first period she can recall in which 300 to 400 Minnesota horses have been found malnourished for several years in a row...

"You can sell off beef, dairy or swine, but not horses," Martinson said, noting that the federal government stopped funding USDA inspectors for horse-slaughter facilities, essentially banning horsemeat from being processed in the United States since 2009. "The extreme drought in Texas has forced a spike in hay prices," Martinson said. "Unlike five years ago, there are more unwanted horses than ever. It's devastating."..

It costs up to $4,000 a year to maintain a horse, said Keith Streff, chief investigator for the Animal Humane Society. Streff, who investigated the Dokken and Hanson horse pens, says that for many economically challenged horse owners, caring for an elderly horse "is like being saddled with a 1,000-pound feral cat...

Additional grim details at the link.

Photo credit David Joles, StarTribune.

Cherry blossoms as a marker of climate change

Via Wired Science, a graph of long-term climate data:

In Japan, cherry blossom festivals are an ancient and wildly popular tradition, featuring days-long celebrations carefully timed to coincide with peak flowering. The festivals are so prominent in Japanese culture that their collective descriptions in diaries, literature and administrative records have been turned into a six-century-long record of blossoming dates and locations across the islands.

Because the trees blossom at certain temperatures, scientists can infer historical weather information, and ultimately climate trends, from these dates. Few other historical climate records contain such fine-grained detail.

The top row shows dates of full flowering, from the 11th century until now (lower number = closer to Jan 1).  Bottom graph is mean March temps derived from flowering dates.

Sung-bong Choi performs on "Korea's Got Talent"

YouTube link. 

Before you watch this, think about what your life was like during the years between your 5th and 15th birthday.

The piece he is singing is an Italian song - "Nella Fantasia" ("In My Fantasy") with music by Ennio Morricone.  You can read more about the young man here.

Keep a box of tissues handy; there's a reason this video has almost 10 million hits.

"Element array, my dear Watson"

Those of you who have been reading this blog since last year know that one of the things I love about this season is the arrival of the King William's College "Christmas Quiz" (the "General Knowledge Paper").  At the link is the background about the quiz, which hasn't been posted at the school's website yet, or online at The Guardian, but was printed in the paper edition of The Guardian this week.

Here's the fifth set of ten questions.  I've given you a hint re the "theme" for this set.

5. What: 
1. Brings light?
2. Is named for its inactivity ?
3. Has a malodorous tetroxide ?
4. Has a particularly frustrating resistance to corrosion ?
5. Skärgård settlement has shared its name with four examples ?
6. Was named as the daughter of 4, but only shed its alternative name in 1949 ?
7. Was alleged by some to be a pun on its discoverer’s name ?
8. Sounds like some sort of hobgoblin ?
9. Was identified in Lochaber ?
10. Quite simply stinks ?

And here's one more set, which might be misleadingly introduced as "Alimentary, my dear Watson" -

6. What: 
1. Is a deadly oxymoron ?
2. Has insecticide properties ?
3. Could be a cheap form of confectionary ?
4. Grotesque body has achieved a girth of 64 inches ?
5. Two names, applied to a firelighter suggest muscle relaxation and recall kitchen negligence ?
6. Better known as one of Rainier’s features, is the most common source of what favourite hallucinogen ?
7. Sinister form of headgear probably accounted for a Holy Roman Emperor ?
8. Parasite is nominally associated with Iscariot ?
9. Precious stone is deceitful ?
10. Is also a lamellibranch ?

There are 16 more sets of ten questions - most of them much harder than these.  Have a go at these in the Comments if you wish.  I'll withhold the answers for now.

Addendum Dec 18 - Most of these have been solved (see Comments), so I'm adding the fourth set of questions (remember all are related by some common "theme"):

4. Which tale or tales: 
1. Is all about Hester's badge of shame ?
2. Investigates the murder of Robert Ablett ?
3. Describes Lamb's problems in the Banda Orientál ?
4. Relates the heroic story of the survivor from Charybdis ?
5. Describes the criminal activities of Alex, Dim, Georgie and Pete ?
6. Describes a prize fight between the gamekeeper and the coxswain at the Dripping Pan ?
7. Considers the murder of an expat philanderer in east Africa ?
8. Tells of how Dick and the outlaw dress up as friars ?
9. Are set in the moorlands above Tweedsmuir ?
10. Reveals the ghost of a don at All Saints ?

(For this last group, I could have said "A lemon tree, my dear Watson," but that is so tangential that it might mislead people.)

Final addendum - Congratulations to readers of this blog, who correctly answered about 75% of these questions over the past several days.  But now I have to make a change.  The Guardian will shortly be posting the complete quiz, and then thousands of people will be searching the web looking for clues.  It would spoil their fun to find this link with all the answers in the Comments.  So tonight I've deleted all the comments and have closed this post to further comments.  

Keep Wikipedia Vandalism Free - Its up to us

Trolls are no-longer under bridges and on Internet discussion boards.  Sometimes they reside on Wikipedia.  I believe that these trolls really think they are clever because they add their rants right into the article that everyone reads.   Sometimes it isn't trolls but graffiti and other times it is someone thinking they are really clever.  Its really annoying, but something we have to deal with in order to keep Wikipedia the place where everyone can edit.

Tonight I'm going to show you step by step how to revert an edit.  Some of the steps can look intimidating to newer editors but never fear I'm going to use pictures so you can see how its done, then turn you loose to clean up the crap.

Firstly it is really important to understand Watchlists.  Here are two blogs I've written about the topic.
Very Very Basic Editing 
Watchlists Again Busy Busy Me

Adding pages to your watchlist is the first step towards reverting vandalism.  You can only revert edits if you are made aware there is a problem with the page.  In order to do that you have to have a watchlist.  Adding pages to your watchlist is fairly simple.  First you need to be logged into Wikipedia.  Then every page that you think you might be interested in watching you need to actually go to.  You will see an empty star on the right side of the page.
Click on the empty star and it will turn blue and give you a message that you have just added this page to your watch list.  Click on the blue star and it will remove it from your watchlist.  Okay?

Here is what the right top page looks like for me.


Click on the "my watchlist" and you will see every page that has been changed appear on a daily list.  Here is a snapshot of what I'm looking at.



The lower case "m" means that it is a "minor edit".  You can remove all the minor edits from the watchlist cue.  I don't want that option because the person who is making the edit selects "minor edit" before saving.  I'm suspicious that someone trying to sneak through vandalism will check the minor edit box so that very few people notice.


Also whenever someone edits a page they give a reason why they edited it.  Sometimes it is simple like "typo" or "added reference" something simple that you might not even check.  Again what is written in that reason box was written by someone who might be wanting to sneak something in.


So I check everything on my watchlist, even if it looks innocent.  Another reason I do this is that I can learn from the better editors.


The color + and - numbers in the ( ) I believe mean how many characters were added or removed.  That's another clue to whether you should check the edit or not.


On the left side it says "diff" that means the difference before/after.

I'm trying to find some vandalism, but of course I can't find any at the moment.  Here is an edit I made a couple days ago for Mark Edward's page.  It shows up like this on my watchlist.


When you click on the "diff" you will see the page I linked to below.


Mark Edward WP page with slight change


 The right side is yellow and the left side is green.  Every change is in red print.  So you can see I changed the word "a" to "as"

On the top right side above all the green you will see this area.


 See the "undo" box.  If you click that you will see the following... 










Scary message telling you that if it is vandalism you are reverting you don't have to leave a reason for the revert.  If not, then you must explain why you are reverting.

Personally I like to leave a reason that might help the editor.  If it is something that I can't sum up in a few words then I will go to the discussion page and leave a more detailed reason why I reverted their edit.

Near the bottom you will see this area...



See where you can click the "minor edit" box?  You write in the area that starts out with "undid revision 466...." the reason why you are reverting the edit.  Then click "show preview" to make sure you did it correct.  Then "save page".

Okay, now your free to help keep Wikipedia vandalism free.

Susan