06 January 2017
Worst ice hockey play ever
Your team is ahead by one goal with only 15 seconds left in the game. You steal the puck and skate toward their empty net. Then.... And then...
Credit reporting agencies behaving badly
"... on Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that two of the three major credit-reporting agencies responsible for doling out those scores—Equifax and Transunion—have been deceiving and taking advantage of Americans. The Bureau ordered the agencies to pay more than $23 million in fines and restitution.More at The Atlantic.
In their investigation, the Bureau found that the two agencies had been misrepresenting the scores provided to consumers, telling them that the score reports they received were the same reports that lenders and businesses received, when, in fact, they were not.
The investigation also found problems with the way the agencies advertised their products...
That these credit agencies would abuse their power to mislead Americans attempting to take a more active role in monitoring their financial health is not only a violation of trust, it is dangerous.
04 January 2017
Ice dams
Woke up to sub-zero temperatures this morning. This is the time of year when people in this part of the country often have to deal with ice dams.
The image above comes from a post at Structure Tech written by Reuben Saltzman. Go to that link for a concise, well-illustrated, and authoritative explanation about preventing ice dams.
I have been intermittently reading Mr. Saltzman's other blog - The Home Inspector - for several years. I can unreservedly recommend it to anyone who owns and maintains a house.
03 January 2017
Norwegian ancestors
In December my last remaining aunt died, at age 99. In her belongings the family found many old photos, including the two embedded above. These were tiny photos (3"x3"), originally encased in miniature wooden frames with no identifying information. They were later stored and labeled "photos made in Norway. Who are they?" Of course we have no idea.
If they were direct lineal ancestors (rather than inlaws), they would have lived either in Distad in the Fjaerland Fjord and likely had the portraits done in Balestrand, or if they were related to my grandfather they might have lived in the Hemsedal/Hallingdal region (more likely I think).
The Norwegian side of my family emigrated to the United States in the 1850s, but these photos might have been sent to them later by relatives remaining behind.
If any readers have identical photos in their family albums, please let me know...
What's wrong with people?
Why does a story like this even exist? I know vandalism is part and parcel of numerous festivals and holidays around the world (and has been for decades), but wtf?
Word for the day: drey
I've spent most of my life with squirrels in the yard or somewhere nearby. I've watched them build nests (these photographed in our neighborhood yesterday) and marveled at how such a porous structure could provide shelter in -20 degree temperatures.
But in all these years I have never read (or heard) a squirrel nest referred to as a "drey" until I encountered the term this past week, I think in a Fortean Times article. Perhaps the term is more commonly used in Great Britain.
The etymology is unknown. Even my OED doesn't offer a suggestion, other than to indicate that it is "local." Perhaps it is an ancient word, dating back to Saxon times.
Interesting fact: "Even though they are brown in the winter, the leaves surrounding the drey continue to cling tightly to their branches because they were harvested well before the tree began the process of shutting down and shedding its leaves." I had wondered about that too. You learn something every day.
02 January 2017
You are invited to decipher Civil War telegrams
As part of a crowdsourced project:
Volunteers are logging on — at decodingthecivilwar.org — to transcribe thousands of long-lost wartime missives using a crowdsourcing platform developed and managed, in part, by the University of Minnesota...
...in 2009, two wooden trunks holding 35 ledger and code books turned up and were sold at auction. The archive had been apparently been taken by Thomas T. Eckert, head of the Civil War telegraph program, when he left government service. With almost 16,000 messages, the telegram cache is so dense, so massive, that Einaudi predicted that it would take a full-time staff as long as a decade to painstakingly decipher the messages one by one.That’s where the crowdsourcing comes in...Starting this past June, volunteers from across the country have been able to register on the Decoding the Civil War website, take a quick tutorial and begin scrutinizing the scanned copies of the original telegrams.
Note this is not "codebreaking" per se - it's more a matter of deciphering sometimes-illegible handwriting.
Because the handwriting of the 1860s is filled with flourishes and quirks that have long passed from style, volunteers often debate the meaning of the scribblings on the website’s talk boards. “We have people online 24 hours a day,” Einaudi said. “When you increase the eyeballs, you increase consensus, the wisdom of the crowd.”..“We can’t build an algorithm that can do this kind of work,” said Lucy Fortson, U Zooniverse director. “Humans have developed this beautiful visual cortex that allows them to see complex patterns, distinguish visual information and type what they see.“Machines can do data analysis, but they aren’t any good at reading handwriting.”..“A certain type of person is predisposed to volunteering on a site like this. We see a hankering to be involved with something meaningful, and research translates as meaningful. With crowdsourcing, they have a bit of ownership in what we might find.”
If you're interested, here is the project's website.
The lion (and pig) of Lucerne
The Lion Monument (German: Löwendenkmal), or the Lion of Lucerne, is a sculpture in Lucerne, Switzerland, designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen. It commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris, France. The American writer Mark Twain (1835–1910) praised the sculpture of a mortally-wounded lion as "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.”...
The monument is dedicated Helvetiorum Fidei ac Virtuti ("To the loyalty and bravery of the Swiss"). The dying lion is portrayed impaled by a spear, covering a shield bearing the fleur-delis of the French monarchy; beside him is another shield bearing the coat of arms of Switzerland. The inscription below the sculpture lists the names of the officers, and approximate numbers of the soldiers who died (DCCLX = 760), and survived (CCCL = 350)...
Before completing the monument, the artist, Bertel Thorvaldsen, was told that not enough money had been raised to pay for his services and that he would not be fully paid for his work. Thorvaldsen wanted to make a public statement about his disdain for the situation. Out of respect for the fallen soldiers he chose not to damage the sculpture itself and decided instead to change the shape of the nook the lion lay inside. The outside edge remains in the shape of a pig to this day; a subtle but clear message of his feelings..More details in a pdf at Luzerne.
The Star-Spangled Banner, third stanza
There have been a lot of first stanzas of the Star-Spangled Banner sung at football games this week. I had to look up the third stanza; I don't believe I've ever heard it sung.
"And where is that band who so vauntingly sworePolitical cartoon via Jobsanger. Full lyrics (four stanzas) here.
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."
01 January 2017
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