Sunday, March 08, 2015

Factoid of the day

A Black Knight (in King Arthur's court)?

actually, yes: not in the British tales, but in a Dutch tale of King Arthur's knights.


Moriaen

 While searching for Lancelot thirteen years prior, Aglovale had traveled through the Moorish lands and fallen in love with a beautiful princess. They pledged their betrothal, but refusing to abandon his quest before Lancelot was located, Aglovale left the country before they could marry. He left her pregnant with his son Morien, who would grow into a tall, handsome youth "black of face and limb... After Morien tells his story to Lancelot and Gawain, who promise to help him find his father, the knights go on a series of adventures showcasing their talents. In the end father and son are reunited, and Aglovale travels to the land of the Moors to marry his lover and win back her rightful lands.

I ran across it as an audiobook while checking out stuff at  Archive.org

Family news

Lolo's daughter arrived late last night with her husband John.

They will stay two weeks. They came down to see Lolo this morning and he is happy to see them (It's been two years).

I went to early mass and the deacon brougth Lolo communion early this morning.

The house is busy getting ready for the big birthday party tonite. It's his 90th.

Saturday, March 07, 2015

Good news of the day

NYTimes reports: Liberia discharged it's last ebola patient today
more here.

it could still pop up again, as it did in Guinea and Sierra Leone, but the epidemic is almost over.

however, if you want to worry about a disease, MERS is still around in the Middle East.


The Saudi Health Ministry last month reported that 385 people have died of MERS among 902 cases discovered in the kingdom.

Ten Filipinos have died of it in the Middle East so far, most of them health care workers, and a nurse who recently arrived home was diagnosed with it here.

Leeks take two



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ten hour version here

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the music behind the leek song

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or if you hate leeks, watch this song about Cabbage



Ah the beauties of Wales

AtlasObscura has a page on a local village in Wales

The tiny village on the isle of Anglesey that is now known as Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, (Llanfairpwll or Llanfair PG for "short") has existed in some form or another since the Neolithic Era, but it not gain it unique name until the 1880s....
The name, which is printed on the village's absurdly long train station sign translates from the Welsh as, "St. Mary's Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the red cave."...
While Llanfairpwllgwyngyll is a mouthful it is no longer the longest place name in the world as the tailor who came up with it had intended. That honor has been usurped by an even more ridiculously named town in Thailand, the name of which we don't even have room for here. 
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related item

the Welsh in Pennsylvania celebrate St. David's day



oh yes: They also celebrate it in Wales


and don't forget your ceremonial leek:
The ceremonial leeks presented to members of the Welsh Guards at Hounslow Cavalry Barracks (photo by Sergeant Steve Blake)


Legend has it the tradition originated when King Cadwaladr ordered his soldiers to identify themselves by wearing the vegetable on their helmets during a fierce battle against the Saxons on a leek field.



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No PC Catholic nuns allowed?

Mrs Gay Caswell said her daughter's order of Catholic sisters are no longer are being allowed to help staff a slum Catholic school in Chicago...after her daughter helped organize a pro life march from the school last January.

Anyone know the real story?

A local "metis", Mrs Caswell's stories of local problems among the "indigenous" and the "metis" in rural Canada tend to sound over the top, but after a couple years of working "on the res" in Minnesota, they sound about right.

YUM. fractal hamentasch

Mathematical baking!



A few years ago, a recipe was published on a Seattle Local Food blog for makingSierpinski Hamentaschen, which provided a solution to the ages-old problem of how to create a hamentaschen without having a dough:filling ratio that is too high. This was especially a problem at the ‘eat’ stage of the algorithm.
It turns out that the solution is surprisingly simple: take advantage of mathematical knowledge about theSierpinski triangle and create fractal hamentaschen.
Thankfully, mathematical baking is an active area. My own institution, University of Oxford, even held amathematical bake-off last fall.

Via Improbable research

Family news

They are finishing fixing up the kitchen.

The city has decided to tar the front road (we are an alternate route for trucks, especially on Monday when it's Palenke day, when temporary stalls sell things once a week, partly blocking the street).

Chona came over this morning to say hi.

and Robin and John should arrive tonite: delays due to the weather in the USA...

Friday, March 06, 2015

Ideas that have gone past their expiration dates

a transcript of the latest Freakonomics podcast.. summary:

DUBNER:All right, we’ve already heard five ideas that should maybe be sent to the trash bin – the “atheism prerequisite” for scientists, the value of mouse models for human medicine (which, I admit, stunned me), the idea that statistics are as powerful and useful as we think; the idea of “the universe,” and the left-brain/right-brain construct. Coming up on Freakonomics Radio, some other ideas we might want to get rid of, including:
ALDA: The idea that things are either true or false.

DUBNER:And…

BLOOM: The idea that science can tell us everything we need to know about how to be happy.

DUBNER:And …

Michael NORTON: The idea that markets are good.

DUBNER: Really? You sure about that?

NORTON: And the second idea that I think is ready for retirement is the idea that markets are bad.
 


Iran post of the day

How the revolution allowed women to be free in Iran.

 the government established Azad University. The non-profit, national network of institutions, with branches in large cities, small towns and even villages, provided girls from the middle and lower classes access to education they'd never had before.
"These girls, who like me, were the first in their families to go to university, they are teaching their children equality, because they have grown up with it themselves," Farah says. It inspired competence, and confidence. I ask Farah what she studied at university.
"Women's studies, of course," she answers with a smile.
From the BBC

Food: "bugs" and food

actually, not insects but yeasty beasties and lactobacillus etc.




FOOD FIGHT!

PJMedia article on the five best food fights in movies.

My choice is this one:




but the article overlooked the food fight in Blazing Saddles which was based on the Great Race food fight....

Thursday, March 05, 2015

Senior Citizen vs computer


 
 
SENIOR CITIZEN TRYING TO SET A NEW PASSWORD


WINDOWS: Please enter your new password.   
USER: cabbage
 

WINDOWS: Sorry, the password must be more than 8 characters
     USER: boiled cabbage

WINDOWS: Sorry, the password must contain  1 numerical character.
      
USER: 1 boiled cabbage

WINDOWS:  Sorry, the password cannot have blank spaces.
      USER:  50bloodyboiledcabbages

WINDOWS: Sorry, the password must  contain at least one upper case character.
       USER:  50BLOODYboiledcabbages

WINDOWS:Sorry,the password cannot use more than one upper case character consecutively.
        
USER:  50BloodyBoiledCabbagesShovedUpYourAssIfYouDon'tGiveMeAccessNow!

WINDOWS: Sorry, the password cannot contain punctuation.        USER:  ReallyPissedOff50BloodyBoiledCabbagesShovedUpYourAssIfYouDontGiveMeAccessNow

WINDOWS: Sorry, that password is already in use!!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>  
  
 
your email of the day from TiaMaria 

Family news

Lolo remains weak, but ate better today.

Chona arranged for a young lady to clean the house last week, and we will have her come once a week for a good cleaning. We do have another girl to come to clean and do the laundry but she only does a routine cleaning, not scrubbing...

Ruby's youth group had a meeting here this evening.

Robin and John arrive Friday evening, so we will probably not see them until Saturday. Nanette arrives Saturday with her husband too.

Danny came also. He is taking early retirement, but Daisy is still working so couldn't come.

Factoid (number two) of the day

Years ago, after sent on a vacation to recover from an infection, I stayed in eastern Zimbabwe (which was Rhodesia back then).

We hiked the mountains behind the mission, and it was terraced with stones about 1 to 2 feet high and flat for 2 to 3 feet, if I remember correctly.

But although these were ancient terraces, I could never find the history of who made them or why.

Right now, on Scribd, I am reading Brian Fagan's book Elixir, about water, and he notes that these were irrigation type farming found in several areas of East Africa...most of what he describes is furthur north but he also mentions these and that the Drackenburg mountains have some.

the Wikipedia article only notes those of the Great Lake Region. more HERE.which is about the SA and Zim terraces.

I'll have to read it more carefullywhen I'm more alert. One problem of reading on line is that it's hard to go back and forth and take notes.

Factoid of the day

Live Long and Prosper hand sign is ....based on a Jewish blessing gesture...


Wednesday, March 04, 2015

The "WTF" science headline of the day

Homer Simpson "discovered the Higgs boson"

 Photo: Matt Groening/Fox
Homer Simpson predicted the mass of the Higgs boson in a 1998 episode of The Simpsons, according to a science writer.In The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace episode, Homer is shown in front of a blackboard working on an equation..."That equation predicts the mass of the Higgs boson. ..."It's kind of amazing as Homer makes this prediction 14 years before it was discovered."

Tuesday, March 03, 2015

Biology lesson of the day

Via Cute Overload: Meet the Sparklemuffin spider.



more about these spiders at LiveScience.

and don't miss Incredible Photos of Peacock Spiders

Family news

Since Lolo is spending more time in bed, I bought him some loose Gym shorts to wear instead of his tweed shorts or trousers, bought some more bedlinen so we could change the beds more often, and a few extra pillows so he can sit up higher when he gets asthma.

He isn't eating as well for the last two days, and now requires help to be washed (up to last week he took his own showers).

Sigh. He claims he has no pain, however, so we are taking it day by day.

Monday, March 02, 2015

Stuff around the net

to protest the FCC using a law from the 1930's to justify new regs to let the gov't take over the internet, Verizon posted it's protest in Morse code:


- --- -.. .- -.-- .----. ...   -.. . -.-. .. ... .. --- -.   -... -.--   - .... .   ..-. -.-. -.-.   - ---   . -. -.-. ..- -- -... . .-.   -... .-. --- .- -.. -... .- -. -..   .. -. - . .-. -. . -   ... . .-. ...- .. -.-. . ...   .-- .. - ....   -... .- -.. .-.. -.--   .- -. - .. --.- ..- .- - . -..   .-. . --. ..- .-.. .- - .. --- -. ...   .. ...   .-   .-. .- -.. .. -.-. .- .-..   ... - . .--.   - .... .- -   .--. .-. . ... .- --. . ...   .-   - .. -- .   --- ..-.   ..- -. -.-. . .-. - .- .. -. - -.--   ..-. --- .-.   -.-. --- -. ... ..- -- . .-. ... --..--   .. -. -. --- ...- .- - --- .-. ...   .- -. -..   .. -. ...- . ... - --- .-. ... .-.-.-   --- ...- . .-.   - .... .   .--. .- ... -   - .-- ---   -.. . -.-. .- -.. . ...   .-   -... .. .--. .- .-. - .. ... .- -. --..--   .-.. .. --. .... - -....- - --- ..- -.-. ....   .--. --- .-.. .. -.-. -.--   .- .--. .--. .-. --- .- -.-. ....   ..- -. .-.. . .- ... .... . -..   ..- -. .--. .-. . -.-. . -.. . -. - . -..   .. -. ...- . ... - -- . -. -   .- -. -..   . -. .- -... .-.. . -..   - .... .   -... .-. --- .- -.. -... .- -. -..   .. -. - . .-. -. . -   .- --. .   (etc)

well, why not?
 It worked in Independence Day.
via Sense of Events
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Ten Facts about the grapes of Wrath.

of course it's propaganda. But when the USSR showed it in theatres to instruct their people on how poor it is in the USA, it backfired: What the Russian people saw was that the poorest of the poor in the USA actually owned a car...

headsup Presurfer.

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Follow the money....Cardinal Pell is finding where the corrupt Vatican officials are hiding and misusing money, so they plant a hit job about him living in luxury in the Australian papers.

Father Z explains it for you.

and no, he doesn't have a Cappa Magna...

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congress has all types of people giving them speeches, so why the huge kerfuffle about Netanyahu?

because he'll spill the beans about President Obama's secret negotiations with Iran?

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StrategyPage summarizes what's going on here in the Philippines.