Discussion of the photo (and the equipment he used) by the photographer at the Astronomy subreddit.
15 August 2021
Demonizing childless people
"Ohio Senate candidate J. D. Vance... held that the “childless left,” exemplified, in his view, by politicians like Pete Buttigieg, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cory Booker, and Kamala Harris, is turning the country into a rump state of imperious cat ladies. “Let’s give votes to all children in this country,” Vance argued, by way of remedy, “but let’s give control over those votes to the parents of the children … We should worry that in America, family formation, our birth rates, a ton of indicators of family health have collapsed.”Vance’s proposal was a hit on Fox and Friends, and The Federalist’s publisher, Ben Domenech, picked up the line of thinking in another segment that aired on the network earlier this week, arguing, inter alia, that “woke, socialist progressives” hate babies “more than anything else,” and that the left detests the fact that there are children, period. All the usual suspects—radical environmentalists agitating for depopulation, career-oriented girl bosses, critical race theorists—made their usual appearances, each offered as evidence of a leftward political bent that’s thoroughly anti-child."
Commentary continues at The Atlantic.
A useful video for iPhone users
A lucid and well-illustrated explanation of how to record not a movie with the camera but a video of whatever you're watching on the screen.
Found at a The Loop - a blog devoted to Apple and its products.
12 August 2021
Gleanings from "The European Discovery of America"
When I was in high school in the 1960s, one of my textbooks was "The Growth of the American Republic" by Morison and Commager. So when I spotted this reference book by the same author in our local library's book sale for a few bucks, I eagerly grabbed it. It turned out to be well worth it. A longread, to be sure (700+ pages) extensively annotated and illustrated with photos and maps. Herewith some interesting excerpts of TYWKIWDBI-type items.
The Norse discoverers of Greenland and Vinland did not use a long Viking ship like the one unearthed at Gokstad and preserved at Oslo. There is ample evidence that they used the knarr, a beamy type propelled principally by one big square sail... like the long Viking ships she was directed by a steerboard on the right side - hence the word "starboard."The English [ship]builder, if he does not own an oak forest himself, arranges with another to take out the timber he wants Oak is preferred, not only for its strength but because limbs growing from the trunk at different angles make natural crooks for the ribs or frames, the knees, and the curbed stem piece. Builders would carry a wagon-load of templates into the oak grove, match them against standing trees, cut down those they wanted, and shape them with ax and adze.In 1500 it was anyone's guess which European power would dominate North America. Eliminating Spain and Portugal, both of whom had little energy left for these supposedly poor and chilly regions of the New World, we have France and England, and anyone estimating their relative power in 1550 would have bet on France. She had sixfold the population of England... France had a greater extent of ocean-facing territory, as many or more seaports than England, an equally enterprising maritime population, far greater weatlth, and, until her civil wars broke out, a government as much interested in maritime affairs as that of the Tudors. Why, then, did France not annex all America north of Florida? The following chapters will provide part of the answer...Domagaya [a Huron], who had suffered a bad case of scurvy.. appeared to be cured. What had healed him? The juice and concoction from a certain tree... "They brought back from the forest nine or ten branches and showed us how to grind the bark and boil it in water, then drink the potion every other day and apply the residue as a poultice to swollen and infected legs." ... a few bold fellows tried it, felt better at once, and after two or three days were completely cured. This miraculous tree, a specimen of the common arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis) was pulled to pieces by the frenchmen, and every leaf and piece of park consumed in a week by sailors frantic for relief...David Ingram, an English sailor set ashore with two others in October 1567 on the Gulf coast of Florida... managed to walk by Indian trail all the way to the Maine coast. After a couple of years' tramping, he hailed a French ship a the mouth of the St. John River, New Brunswick, and returned to Europe. Once home in England, David made a living telling in sundry taverns the tale of his incredible journey...Royal officials... are ordered to let [Cartier] recruit fifty convicts from the prisons, provided they had not been condemned for heresy, lese majeste, or counterfeiting coins. This permission to recruit convicts may mean... that the word had gone around the waterfront that Canada was a lonely, frigid place which gave you nothing but scurvy. From a sailor's point of view there was far more fun and profit to be had in a fishing voyage to the Grand Bank... Similarly, after Columbus's first voyage, everybody wanted to go to the Indies, but after his second voyage nobody wanted to go, and Spain had to rake the jails to obtain settlers for Hispaniola. It is difficult for Americans, north or south, to accept the fact that for a century after Columbus's discovery, the ordinary sort of European had to be bribed, drugged, or beaten to go out to this "land of promise, unless to fish."
I'll now donate the book back to the library; it deserves to have an extended life in many homes.
How the Vikings captured a city in Sicily
"Now when Harald came to Sicily he harried there and with his army laid siege to a great and populous fortified city. He surrounded the place, because it had strong walls, so that it seemed unlikely that he could break them down. The townspeople had sufficient victuals and other things required to resist a siege. Then Harald hit upon this stratagem: he let his fowlers catch little birds which had their nests in the city and tie plane shavings of resinous pine soaked with molten wax and sulphur on their backs, to which he set fire. When liberated, all the birds at once flew into the city to seek their young and the nests they had under the thatches of reed or straw. And then the fire spread from the birds to the house-thatches; and though each single one carried but little fire, it soon grew to a conflagration, since many birds carried it all about the thatches of the city; and soon one house after the other began to burn till the whole city was aflame. Then all the people came out of the city and begged for mercy—the very same who many a day had spoken overbearingly and scornfully about the Greek army and its generals. Harald gave all those quarter who asked for it, and made himself master of that city."
--- excerpt from Chapter 6 of the "Saga of Harald Sigurtharson," in Heimskingla, by Snorri Sturluson.
I have heard of other legendary warriors using animals carrying flames to set a city on fire - most notably Genghis Khan, who...
"...used hapless animals in the Mongol campaign against the Tangut kingdom of Hsia Hsi in 1207. In a feint he offered to end the siege of the well fortified city of Volohai if he was paid a “tribute of one thousand cats and one thousand swallows”. Genghis Khan then set them alight and released them in one great rush of living fire. The wretched animals set the city alight in hundreds of places simultaneously. While the defenders fought the flames, the Mongols breached the walls of Volohai."
The Sicily incident recorded in the Heimskringla was written by a 12th-century historian, reporting on the conquests of Harald Hardrada in the 11th century - so fully two centuries before Genghis Khan.
A quick search reveals a similar technique in the early Song Dynasty (960-1279):
According to Pr. Shi Bo, in "Trente-six Stratagèmes Chinois", monkeys were used in the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty, in a battle between rebels of the Yanzhou (Yasuo) province and the Chinese Imperial Army, led by Zhao Yu. The monkeys were used as live incendiary devices. The animals were clothed with straw, dipped in oil and set on fire. They were set loose into the enemy's camp, thereby setting the tents on fire, and driving the whole camp into chaos.
Addendum: Reader Galileo Feynman reminds us that the United States attempted to use "incendiary bats" against Japan during WWII (discussed in this NPR podcast).
Enslaved by oysterpirates
"Ma soul an’ body ole Cap’n Gifford used ter be a frien’ o’ mahne many’s the time we been oysterin’ together on the Eastan Shoa an’ oysterpirates used to shanghai young fellers in those days an’ make ’em work all winter you couldn’ git away less you swam ashoa and the water was too damnation cole an’ the ole man used to take the fellers’ clothes away so’s they couldn’t git ashoa when they was anchored up in a crik or near a house or somethin’ boy they was mean customers the oysterpirates ma soul and body onct there was a young feller they worked till he dropped and then they’d just sling him overboard tongin’ for oysters or dredgin’ like them oysterpirates did’s the meanest kinda work in winter with the spray freezin’ on the lines an’ cuttin’ your hands to shreds an’ the dredge foulin’ every minute an’ us havin’ to haul it up an’ fix it with our hands in the icy water hauled up a stiff onct. What’s a stiff? Ma soul an’ body a stiff’s a dead man ma boy a young feller it was too without a stitch on him an’ the body looked like it had been beat with a belayin’ pin somethin’ terrible or an’ oar mebbe reckon he wouldn’t work or was sick or somethin’ an’ the ole man jus’ beat him till he died sure couldn’t a been nothin’ but an oysterpirate."
--- John Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel (Houghton Mifflin, NY, 1930)
11 August 2021
Pedestrian street (Malaga, Spain)
That's not the pavement you're viewing - it's the canopy. Here is a view from underneath:
The fabric has been crocheted (producing, as one pundit put it, "cro-shade."
Kudos to this community. Via.
Addendum: More photos at My Modern Met.
Choreography for Beethoven's Fifth Symphony
Via Pictojam - a new website developed by one of my oldest cyberfriends. It is very TYWKIWDBI-esque in terms of content. Please take a moment to view the site, and if you have comments or suggestions for changes, please feel free to leave them on this post.
And a tip of the blogging cap to eagle-eyed reader Rick, who noticed this:
Goose photographed "mid-whiffle"
The body of this goose is upside-down, but he has turned his head rightside-up. Photographed in turbulent weather and explained thus: 
And a video of the process:
“It looks like this bird is in mid-whiffle,” he said. “When geese come in to land from a great height they partake in a bout of whiffling, this involves the bird twisting and turning to spill air from their wings and thus lowering their speed prior to landing. In 36 years of birdwatching I have seen this many times, particularly when watching pink-footed geese on the north Norfolk coast coming in to roost in the late afternoon and evening. I have, however, never seen a photograph of a bird in mid-whiffle like this. It is an amazing photograph.”
Reposted from 2009 to add another photo, from Pictojam -
This was the best video I could find on YouTube of whiffling [why does almost everyone take a perfectly good nature video and then superimpose an annoying unrelated music track?]
Note: Pictojam is a new website developed by one of my oldest cyberfriends. It is very TYWKIWDBI-esque in terms of content. Please take a moment to view the site, and if you have comments or suggestions for changes, please feel free to leave them on this post.
Beer snakes
It was the evening of July 1, and the St. Paul Saints had set out to break a record. The Saints -- known for eye-catching promotions such as hosting the world's largest food fight in 2018, the world's largest Twister game in 2017 and the world's largest pillow fight in 2015 -- wanted to set the North American record for the longest beer cup snake after noticing the trend pop up in baseball stadiums across the country as pandemic restrictions loosened and fans returned to their seats.After the Saints cut off the beer taps in the seventh inning, the team brought its collected beer cups to the 10,000 Takes section and began assembling the beer cup snake, which slowly expanded toward the top of the section, over and above them, before expanding onto the concourse.The team brought out a tape measure. It read 102 feet.
The history of the beer cup snake is hazy, at best, but The Drinks Business -- a publication covering the beer, wine and spirits industry -- stated in 2013 that the longest beer cup snake was constructed that year at the Sydney Cricket Ground, reaching 175 meters, a little over 574 feet. The Sydney Morning Herald cites the first beer cup snake ever occurring at the WACA cricket ground in Perth, Australia, in January 1997. While Mroz's family can stake an earlier claim, wherever the beer cup snake started, the popularity of the plastic animals has endured in the cricket world, also popping up at matches this summer..."If you actually think about it, from a COVID standpoint, we were staying so far away from each other," Mroz said. "Now people are touching cups that other people's saliva is all over. We just went from 0 to 100 in a week, but it shows the resilience of human beings, and how sports really brings people together."
More information at ESPN.
Ivermectin and coronavirus
I first heard about this from a BBC science podcast; a Guardian article provides more details.
The efficacy of a drug being promoted by rightwing figures worldwide for treating Covid-19 is in serious doubt after a major study suggesting the treatment is effective against the virus was withdrawn due to “ethical concerns”...It appeared that the authors had run entire paragraphs from press releases and websites about ivermectin and Covid-19 through a thesaurus to change key words. “Humorously, this led to them changing ‘severe acute respiratory syndrome’ to ‘extreme intense respiratory syndrome’ on one occasion,” Lawrence said.“In their paper, the authors claim that four out of 100 patients died in their standard treatment group for mild and moderate Covid-19,” Lawrence said. “According to the original data, the number was 0, the same as the ivermectin treatment group. In their ivermectin treatment group for severe Covid-19, the authors claim two patients died, but the number in their raw data is four.”“The main error is that at least 79 of the patient records are obvious clones of other records,” Brown told the Guardian. “It’s certainly the hardest to explain away as innocent error, especially since the clones aren’t even pure copies. There are signs that they have tried to change one or two fields to make them look more natural.”Meyerowitz-Katz told the Guardian that “this is one of the biggest ivermectin studies out there”, and it appeared to him the data was “just totally faked”. This was concerning because two meta-analyses of ivermectin for treating Covid-19 had included the Elgazzar study in the results. A meta-analysis is a statistical analysis that combines the results of multiple scientific studies to determine what the overall scientific literature has found about a treatment or intervention...“Thousands of highly educated scientists, doctors, pharmacists, and at least four major medicines regulators missed a fraud so apparent that it might as well have come with a flashing neon sign. That this all happened amid an ongoing global health crisis of epic proportions is all the more terrifying.”
The BBC podcast pointed out that the correlary tragedy is that ivermectin does have therapeutic efficacy against some parasitic diseases, but as a result of this covid craziness, the drug is now unavailable for those uses. And those meta-analyses need to be retracted and recalculated.
Addendum:
"A Butler County judge ruled in favor of a woman last week who sought to force a hospital to administer Ivermectin — an animal dewormer that federal regulators have warned against using in COVID-19 patients — to her husband after several weeks in the ICU with the disease.Butler County Common Pleas Judge Gregory Howard ordered West Chester Hospital, part of the University of Cincinnati network, to treat Jeffrey Smith, 51, with Ivermectin. The order, filed Aug. 23, compels the hospital to provide Smith with 30mg of Ivermectin daily for three weeks...
Julie Smith found Ivermectin on her own and connected with Dr. Fred Wagshul, an Ohio physician who her lawsuit identifies as “one of the foremost experts on using Ivermectin in treating COVID-19.” He prescribed the drug, and the hospital refused to administer it...
In an interview, Wagshul said the science behind Ivermectin’s use in COVID-19 patients is “irrefutable.” The CDC and FDA engaged in a “conspiracy,” he said, to block its use to protect the FDA’s emergency use authorization for COVID-19 vaccines. He said the mainstream media and social media companies have been engaging in “censorship” on Ivermectin’s merits, and that the U.S. government’s refusal to acknowledge its benefits amounts to genocide..."
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