Doublecheck your old books for poisons

Emerald-green covers on old books may contain arsenic.

France’s national library has removed four 19th-century books from its shelves whose emerald green covers are believed to be laced with arsenic.  The library said on Thursday that handling the books, which were printed in Britain, would probably cause only minor harm, but it was taking them away for further analysis...

The Paris institution identified the offending copies after US researchers discovered publishers in the Victorian era had used the chemical to colour book bindings. The arsenic-containing green pigments were called Paris green, emerald green or Scheele’s green after a German-born chemist.

Testing hundreds of book covers for heavy metals since 2019, researchers at the University of Delaware have drawn up a list of potentially dangerous volumes as part of the Poison Book Project.

"Composite image showing color variation of emerald green bookcloth on book spines, likely a result of air pollution. Even when the color on the spine has oxidized and browned, the green cloth on the front and back covers remains vividly green." Courtesy, Winterthur Library, Printed Book and Periodical Collection.

Also, don't chew on your book covers if they are chrome yellow:

The Poison Book Project has identified the toxic pigment chrome yellow (lead chromate) in 19th-century cloth-case bookbindings. Lead and chromium were detected using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) and the compound lead chromate was confirmed using Raman spectroscopy. Preliminary friability testing indicates that chrome yellow remains tightly adhered to the bookcloth and does not offset heavy metals onto the hands.

Victorian-era bookcloth colored with chrome yellow pigment may range from deep, bright, or olive greens (achieved by mixing chrome yellow with various percentages of Prussian blue) to yellows, oranges, and browns. Smaller percentages of chrome yellow mixed with Prussian blue were used to color chrome green bookcloth throughout the 19th century. Chrome yellow was used in larger quantities to color yellow and orange bookcloths predominantly in the 1880s-1890s, a time period that correlates with more affordable pricing for the pigment than earlier in the century.

I don't have time today, but I'm planning a followup re books bound with human skin.

Now, about the photo at the top of the post.  That image shows the bookshelves of reader Philip, who emailed me because he has been a longtime admirer of the posts at TYWKIWDBI that feature readers' bookshelves.  Philip, who is firmly in the "lurker" category, hasn't offered any text to describe the bookcase contents, so I'll use the image to illustrate this post, even though there are no suspicious bookbindings in it.  And I think Bob the Scientist's green penguins are safe, but I haven't browsed the 50 other previous submissions.

All of this has reminded me that I haven't updated the readers' bookshelves category in several years.  I intend to do so this summer.  What I'll probably do is take a few weeks off from the blog for vacation and I'll set the old bookshelf posts to serially repost in my absence (while readers submit new ones), because these posts are my favorite (and arguably the most interesting) ones in the blog.  

When I do this I will also repost instructions on how current readers can submit photos/descriptions of their bookshelves (not yet, please).  So take some time to ponder now whether you would like your bookshelf(ves) to become world-famous, and whether they need to be tidied up or dusted.

Related:  Toxins in 19th century clothing

"Nearshoring" explained

Excerpts from an article in the Business section of the BBC:

The reclining armchairs and plush leather sofas coming off the production line at Man Wah Furniture's factory in Monterrey are 100% "Made in Mexico".

They're destined for large retailers in the US, like Costco and Walmart. But the company is from China, its Mexican manufacturing plant built with Chinese capital.  The triangular relationship between the US, China and Mexico is behind the buzzword in Mexican business: nearshoring.

Man Wah is one of scores of Chinese companies to relocate to industrial parks in northern Mexico in recent years, to bring production closer to the US market. As well as saving on shipping, their final product is considered completely Mexican - meaning Chinese firms can avoid the US tariffs and sanctions imposed on Chinese goods amid the continuing trade war between the two countries...

"While the Chinese origin of the capital coming into Mexico may be uncomfortable for the policies of some countries," he says, "according to international trade legislation, those products are, to all intents and purposes, Mexican".

That has given Mexico an obvious strategic foothold between the two superpowers: Mexico recently replaced China as the US's main trading partner, a significant and symbolic change...

When an American family buys it at a Walmart store near them, they may have little idea of the complex geopolitics underpinning its production.

This is no secret in the business world (although the term is new to me).  What galls me is that American politicians can pompously orate about being tough on China "to protect American workers" and then wink-wink get the same products by another route.

I have family members living/working in Africa and South America and they are aware of the extent to which Chinese corporations and government policies are targeting local people for employment and infrastructure, building relationships with eyes decades to the future.

There are no ends or beginnings - there are only middles

I recently encountered an extended review of a "new American poet" -

A short time ago I found on a London bookstall an odd number of The Poetry Review, with examples of and comments on “Modern American Poets,”—examples which whetted my curiosity...a literary friend chanced to place in my hands a slim green volume, North of Boston, by Robert Frost. I read it, and reread it. It seemed to me that this poet was destined to take a permanent place in American literature. I asked myself why this book was issued by an English and not by an American publisher. And to this question I have found no answer. I may add here, in parenthesis, that I know nothing of Mr. Robert Frost save the three or four particulars I gleaned from the English friend who sent me North of Boston... He is a master of his exacting medium, blank verse,—a new master.”

I was startled to see the review accompanied by a line drawing of Robert Frost, and  then realized the review was a reprint of one originally written in August of 1915.  

The review not surprisingly cites "Mending Wall" and "The Death of the Hired Man," but I realized there were poems cited that were unfamiliar to me, so I requested the book from our library, and in perusing it found this somewhat startling turn of phrase:

"Ends and beginnings - there are no such things.

There are only middles."

"In the Home Stretch"

It seemed to be incorrect, until I remembered a comment offered by a reader recently citing October 7 as the "beginning" of the current middle-East conflict.  Then I tried to think about the true "beginning" of WWII or the American Civil War (and whether such wars ever have "ends" or just change form)...  Thus the title of this post and a thought I'm still turning over in my mind.

Herewith some other excerpts from poems in Frost's original anthology:

"Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it

And spills the upper boulders in the sun,

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast."

"Mending Wall"

"Home is the place where, when you  have to go there,

They have to take you in."

"The Death of the Hired Man"

"It's rest I want - there, I have said it out -

From cooking meals for hungry hired men

And washing dishes after them - from doing

Things over and over that just won't stay done."

"A Servant to Servants"

For, dear me, why abandon a belief

Merely because it ceases to be true.

Cling to it long enough, and not a doubt

It will turn true again, for so it goes. 

Most of the change we think we see in life

Is due to truths being in and out of favor." 

"The Black Cottage"

"If one by one we counted people out

For the least sin, it wouldn't take us long

To get so we had no one left to live with.

For to be social is to be forgiving."

"The Star Splitter"

Comments welcome about Frost, poetry, and the existence (or not) of absolute beginnings and endings, but no comments about war please...

Bicycles storming the beaches of Normandy on D-Day

I don't remember seeing this in the movies.  This is one of a series of interesting images of Bicycles of World War II at The Atlantic.  Here are a couple more (the first shows bicycles with mounted machine guns):

Details and photo credits at The Atlantic.

Politics-driven internal migration in the United States

An article in the New York Times discusses the possibility that Americans are starting to move to new locations based on their political opinions.

The in-migration has fueled a yearslong real estate boom across South Carolina, where Republicans have controlled the governor’s mansion and legislature for more than two decades. Real estate agents like Ms. Hubbell say many of their clients are religious conservatives whose reasons for moving include opposition to policies like abortion access, support for transgender rights and vaccine mandates during the pandemic.

Paul Chabot, the founder and president of Conservative Move, which works with about 500 agents across the country, said that when he started his company in 2017, there were not a lot of people asking to go to South Carolina.

In the last two years, however, it has joined Texas and Florida among the top three states that the company’s clients are buying homes in, Mr. Chabot said. About 5,000 people in its clientele database have expressed interest in moving to South Carolina soon...

Last year, about 15,500 New Yorkers, 15,000 Californians and 36,000 North Carolinians moved to the state, which has a population of more than 5.3 million. There is no data that breaks down those demographics by political party, but few believe that the growth will do much to shift the state politically. The same cannot be said for Texas, Georgia and North Carolina, which are becoming somewhat more blue as young, liberal-leaning people flock to some of their cities, said Mark Owens, a political science professor at the Citadel in Charleston...

Ms. Gomes, who described herself as Christian and anti-abortion, said she felt compelled to leave [Minnesota] because she was getting yelled at in grocery stores for not wearing a mask during the pandemic, and because abortion remains legal, with no restrictions, in Minnesota.  She said she was also worried about how, in her view, “transgenderism infiltrates all aspects of education, public life, when you’re out and about” in Minnesota.

Looking forward to comments from Crowboy and others...

Charles Schultz, axe-murderer ?

An article at the Peanuts wiki discusses the brief life and theoretically gruesome death of "Charlotte Braun," a minor and not-well-liked character in the series.

Charlotte's life in the strip was very short-lived. She made only 10 appearances, the last of which was on February 1, 1955; a victim of being an under-used supporting character with limited comic potential. Her bossy, loudmouthed traits survived, however, in the form of Lucy, who gained much storyline potential after her personality was changed in the mid-1950s (until that time Lucy had functioned as a wide-eyed child of wonder)...

...two months after Schulz died, a Peanuts fan named Elizabeth Swaim informed the Library of Congress that she would be donating a letter to the library, which was revealed that she had written to Schulz in 1955, requesting him to remove Charlotte Braun from the strip. Schulz replied that he would be willing to do so but said that the person who wrote to him would be responsible for "the death of an innocent child". Schulz concluded the letter with a picture of Charlotte Braun with an ax in her head. The letter is now in the United States Library of Congress.

Via Neatorama. 

A "contaminated ink" error dollar bill

It's a rather subtle error (different color inks on the serial numbers), and one that I would not normally notice and have perhaps passed over in daily life.  The prevalence and relative value of this error is discussed in the papermoney subreddit.

Use the solidus, not the obelus, to indicate division

I encountered the plural "obeli" in a crossword puzzle today and had to look it up.  

The word "obelus" comes from ὀβελός (obelós), the Ancient Greek word for a sharpened stick, spit, or pointed pillar. This is the same root as that of the word 'obelisk'...

The form of the obelus as a horizontal line with a dot above and a dot below, ÷, was first used as a symbol for division by the Swiss mathematician Johann Rahn in his book Teutsche Algebra in 1659. This gave rise to the modern mathematical symbol ÷, used in anglophone countries as a division sign. This usage, though widespread in Anglophone countries, is neither universal nor recommended: the ISO 80000-2 standard for mathematical notation recommends only the solidus / or fraction bar for division, or the colon : for ratios; it says that ÷ "should not be used" for division.

You learn something every day.   

Recipe for gooey pot brownies

Following generally accepted blogging ethics (and to avoid copyright infringement), I won't post the entire (rather lengthy) recipe here; it is currently available at The Washington Post.  Here are three salient excerpts:

Dark chocolate, a sprinkle of sea salt and cannabis-infused butter (cannabutter) come together for the ultimate take on the iconic edible.

According to cookbook author Diana Isaiou, based on cannabis with 15 percent THC, 1/4 cup of this cannabutter should have 263 milligrams THC total, which means each 2-inch brownie square has about 11 milligrams THC.

And note those healthful fibers.   Reading the recipe reminded me of Julia Child's famous recommendation "I enjoy cooking with wine.  Sometimes I even put it in the food."

Posted for a friend.  Enjoy.

A jaw on the floor

The idiom describing shock or astonishment is familiar to everyone, but in this case a jaw is literally on the floor.

"My parents just got their home renovated with travertin stone. This looks like a section of mandible. Could it be a hominid? Is it usual?"

That question was posted by a dentist at the Fossils subreddit, where there are numerous informed replies explaining that this could indeed be a human jawbone (image cropped for emphasis).   There is a detailed scientific explanation at John Hawks (via Neatorama):

Travertine is a limestone that forms near natural springs. Spring water that emerges from lime-rich bedrock often carries a high concentration of dissolved calcium carbonate. When the water evaporates or cools—especially near hot springs—this calcium carbonate precipitates as rock and may form very large deposits around the spring. Travertine has an interesting internal texture when polished, and often has color bands and inclusions of calcite crystals, which make it an appealing choice for decorative flooring or wall covering.

Travertine also commonly includes fossils. Many are fossil inclusions of algae, plants, and small animals—especially molluscs and crustaceans—that live within the spring water. Much larger animals may be found and humans are no exceptions: Several well-known hominin fossil discoveries are from travertine deposits. Most of these discoveries have happened because of quarrying of the travertine deposits for use in construction.

For example, the Steinrinne site is on a terrace of the Wipper River near Bilzingsleben, Germany. The site was quarried from the Middle Ages onward into the twentieth century. Naturalists took notice of the fossils there in the nineteenth century, and straight-tusked elephants, woolly rhinos, and macaques all occur in great numbers, dating to an interglacial period sometime between 470,000 and 280,000 years ago...

Quarries rough-cut travertine and other decorative stone into large panels, doing basic quality checks for gaps and large defects on the rough stone before polishing. Small defects and inclusions are the reason why people want travertine in the first place, so they don't merit special attention. Consumers who buy travertine usually browse samples in a showroom to choose the type of rock, and they don't see the actual panels or tile until installation. Tile or panels that are polished by machine and stacked in a workshop or factory for shipping are handled pretty quickly.

What this means is that there may be lots more hominin bones in people's floors and showers...

It isn't a crime scene. But depending on your state or nation of residence, laws governing discovery of human remains on your property may be complicated and having the paperwork in order with the police, sheriff, or coroner is the first step for most investigations...

Fiendishly difficult cryptic puzzle - updated

Every month I enjoy tackling the cryptic puzzle in Harper's magazine.  The December one that came this week is particularly frustrating.  I've figured out the 24 words in the clues, but I'm facing the task of fitting them into the dodecahedron.

The instructions note that there are 12 letters left over after "subtracting" the five-letter answers from the 6-letter answers, and those 12 letters will spell "the name of the holiday person to whom the puzzle is dedicated." (no indication whether that "name" is a proper name or an occupation or other descriptor and whether it is one word or two or three).

Here are the 12 letters: BEGIIILNNRRV

If I could figure out how to rearrange those 12 letters into a name, the rest of the solution would fall into place more easily.  Even Wordsmith's excellent Internet Anagram Server couldn't come up with any relevant one- to six-word solution - but perhaps names are not in its database.

I'd appreciate any suggestions.  [answer in the Comments]

Reposted to add another fiendish cryptic from Harper's:

I am in awe of the constructors of word puzzles like this.  To start with, the clues are cryptic:

12:  "Unlikely flier takes a long time to become one!"

The unlikely flier is a PIG ("when pigs fly...").  Add a long time (EON) to get PIGEON, which is a flier.  That goes in the hexagon numbered 12.  But... there's no way to know which of the six triangles gets the first letter, and there's no way to know whether the word turns clockwise or widdershins.

So you have to solve an adjacent hexagon clue.  Let's say you figure out clue 11, and the answer shares the letters P and I with hexagon 12.  Good.  But there's still no way to know which direction the words get entered.  So you have to solve a third adjacent clue to start fitting the words together in the grid.

These puzzles are a bit different from the traditional British cryptic grids, and are not for the faint of heart.  For an entry-level standard cryptic, I would suggest the ones posted on Sundays by The New Yorker.  That link should not be behind a paywall, you don't have to create an account, you can click the "settings" to include an "error check mode" that will alert you if you make a mistake while working the puzzle.  And best of all, when you finish (or give up), the answer key will indicate the proper construction of the cryptic entries.  Give it a try.

Reposted from 2023 to add yet another challenging cryptic puzzle grid:

This time the grid has no numbers, so there is no indication which answer goes where.  The clues are arranged in alphabetical order of their (unknown) answers.  I've been working on this for several days and after solving about half of the clues I've found two pairs that logically have to cross in the grid, but it's going to be tough sledding to get the whole grid done.  Those who want to tackle the puzzle can find the original in the May 2024 issue of Harper's Magazine (available from your library).

A grandmother's tattoo explained

She told her grandchildren she "had to get" the tattoo as a child.  The reason is explained in a thread at the WhatIsIt subreddit.

A college student expresses some stark realities

Excerpts from an eye-opening essay by an undergraduate student:

I was surprised to find I spend far, far less time on my classes than on my extracurricular activities... It turns out that I’m not alone in my meager coursework. Although the average college student spent around 25 hours a week studying in 1960, the average was closer to 15 hours in 2015...

This fall, one of my friends did not attend a single lecture or class section until more than a month into the semester. Another spent 40 to 80 hours a week on her preprofessional club, leaving barely any time for school. A third launched a startup while enrolled, leaving studying by the wayside... These extreme examples are outliers. But still, for many students, instead of being the core part of college, class is simply another item on their to-do list, no different from their consulting club presentation or their student newspaper article...

Half of the blame can be assigned to grade inflation, which has fundamentally changed students’ incentives during the past several decades. Rising grades permit mediocre work to be scored highly, and students have reacted by scaling back academic effort...

And therein lies the second reinforcing effect of grade inflation, which not only fails to punish substandard schoolwork but actively incentivizes it, as students often rely on extracurriculars to get ahead. Amanda Claybaugh, dean of undergraduate education, made this point in a recent New York Times interview, saying that “Students feel the need to distinguish themselves outside the classroom because they are essentially indistinguishable inside the classroom.”..

One of my classmates last semester, who is one of the more academically oriented people I know, told me that to get the best grade on an important essay, he simply “regurgitated the readings” without thinking critically about the material...

This utilitarian approach to schoolwork requires a cultural explanation beyond grade inflation, and some of the blame must be placed on the newly meritocratic nature of college admissions. Although the partial shift away from the monied legacy networks that dominated Ivy League spots has been beneficial overall, the change also initiated a résumé arms race... nationwide surveys of incoming freshman confirm this narrative, as an increasingly large share of first-years view college as preparation for financial success rather than a site of learning per se...

This attitude is one manifestation of what Fischman and Gardner call a “transactional model” of college. According to their book, a so-called transactional student “goes to college and does what (and only what) is required to get a degree and then secure placement in graduate school and/or a job; college is viewed principally, perhaps entirely, as a springboard for future-oriented ambitions.”..

In contrast, a professor who is also a College alumnus recently told me that he spent most of his time at Harvard taking five or six classes a semester without doing extracurriculars. Hearing that made me think I’ve probably approached this place in the wrong way. I was discussing the professor’s comments with my roommate the other day, and we both agreed that if we were to go back and redo our undergraduate education, we would basically drop all our extraneous clubs and take as many classes as possible.

I'm sure this essay will trigger a lot of responses from readers (most of whom have probably attended college and experienced similar (or opposite) situations, and I anticipate some vigorous comments.  I would encourage you to read the essay in its entirety and not rely on my focused excerpts.  And note the student is at an elite university, but the principles expressed likely extend broadly across the academic world.

Leaf of Coccoloba gigantifolia

Image cropped for size from a gallery of big things at Bored Panda.  Botanical info at Wikipedia.

Jon Stewart on "victimless" financial crimes

This Daily Show monologue started with commentary about Donald Trump, but in the embedded segment he extends the argument to the wider financial community:

"He's commiting bank fraud where there is no victim"

"No victim.  The ruling is blatantly unfair."

"That didn't go over well with the investment community, because we're asking each other "who's next"?"

"Every [crime] you've just listed is done by every real estate developer..."

According to Stewart the system is "incentivized for corruption", and that apparently if enough people commit a crime, it automatically becomes legal.

Try to watch the video without getting mad at the US financial system.

I'll file this post under "humor" but it's really trenchant social commentary.