The poems of Shel Silverstein

This week I reread a book I first encountered about 40 years ago - Don't Bump the Glump, by Shel Silverstein. Above are some sample pages.

I was disappointed to discover that I had totally misremembered my favorite creature. It really ought to be a Quick-Digesting Geeth. That's what I'm going to continue to use if/when I recite the poem for anyone.

Reposted from 2009 because it has been buried too deeply in the archives.

How do you slice a pie... chart?

I have never seen a pie chart sliced like this one (describing the sexual and racial composition of the American population).  I don't see any advantage over radial wedges, unless its to enable placement of the segment labels within the diagram, and I find it hard to compare the size of irregular polyhedrons.

A quick search led me to "11 pie chart alternatives and when to use them," which didn't include this pattern exactly, unless its a type of Voronai diagram.

Posting this because the readership here has a huge range of knowledge and skills, so perhaps someone can offer an informed comment.

If nothing else, the search at least led me to this old Dilbert cartoon:

Interesting rock from Lake Michigan

Image cropped for size from the original found at the whatsthisrock subreddit, where the top comment on the thread describes it as "crinoid stem hash, with some bivalve cross sections thrown in."

Hans Rosling explained world economic trends back in 2006

I'm sure I originally posted this many many years ago, but I can't find that post now, and it's worth calling it to readers' attentions again.  Sadly, Rosling has died, and his lectures on this subject are unappreciated.

Here is a later version focused on the subject of world population:

These are two of the finest lectures I've ever heard.  And during 30 years in universities, I've heard thousands of lectures.

World population growth rate is declining

"...world history can be divided into three periods marked by distinct trends in population growth. The first period (pre-modernity) was a very long age of very slow population growth. The second period, beginning with the onset of modernity (with rising standards of living and improving health) and lasting until 1962, had an increasing rate of growth. Now that period is over, and the third part of the story has begun; the population growth rate is falling and will likely continue to fall, leading to an end of growth towards the end of this century."

Most people don't understand this.   I have presented this concept several times using the outstanding lectures of Hans Rosling.

LOTS more relevant charts at the OurWorldInData website.

Reposted from 2016.

Hans Rosling chastises the media

YouTube link.

Related: Hans Rosling clarifies world demographics.

Reposted from 2015 to accompany an adjacent post.

Green-tinted wraparound glasses. In 1837 !!

"All we know is that the spectacles were designed to protect Olds’s eyes from the intensity of Argand lamps... Argand lamps, which were widely used for indoor illumination in the early 1800s, burned whale oil. People worried that the light from the flames might be harmful to their eyes."

Image cropped from the original in The Washington Post.

Addendum:  reader Drabkikker found this video about Victorian skincare which features similar glasses.

Orangutan self-medicates a facial wound

"Researchers heard a fight between male orangutans in the treetops of a rainforest in Sumatra, Indonesia; a day later, they spotted Rakus sporting a pink wound below his right eyelid. 

A chunk of flesh about the size and shape of a puzzle piece was missing. 

According to their study, published Thursday, Rakus was observed repeatedly chewing on the leaves of a particular liana plant over several days. The climbing vine is not a typical food for orangutans, but it is known to humans as a pain reliever. 

On at least one occasion, Rakus made a paste from the chewed leaves and applied it to his face. It’s the first time an animal has been seen applying medicine to a skin wound.  Rakus’ wound never showed signs of becoming infected, and it closed up within a week. 

It’s possible Rakus learned to treat his wound through “individual innovation,” Laumer said, after he accidentally touched a finger to a wound with the pain-relieving leaf juice. Or he may have learned the behavior culturally, from other orangutans, early in life. 

Orangutans learn socially and have been shown to be capable with tools. They develop sophisticated knowledge of foods from their mothers. 

He theorized that ancient humans derived the ability to identify medicinal plants and substances from close observations of animals."

More information at NBC News and the embedded link at Nature.  Image cropped for size from the one posted at the New York Times.

Poor analogy

Antarctic temperatures setting new records

"Ground temperatures in East Antarctica have soared more than 50 degrees (28 Celsius) above normal in the second major heat wave to afflict the region in the past two years. This historic warm spell could persist for another 10 days and is an ominous example of the major temperature spikes this polar climate could experience more frequently in a warming world.

“This heat wave is a near-record (or record) event for the region of Antarctica it’s having the biggest impact on,” Edward Blanchard, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington, said in an email. “The heat wave’s large footprint is also remarkable,” as it covers a large section of East Antarctica, which makes up most of the continent."

More information at The Washington Post.

Trump telling his audience NOT to vote for him THIS ELECTION

Readers of TYWKIWDBI will be familiar with Trump's address to a Christian group telling them if they vote for him now, they will never have to vote again.  A variety of spins have been put upon that declaration, some of them partially exculpatory.  But there's more...

The video embedded above is an excerpt from a Rachel Maddow program this past week in which she points out some other frankly bizarre statements by Trump.  The first part of this program featured mocking commentary about a delusional billionaire who claims to have seen the head of Amelia Earhart in a plastic bag on the bottom of the ocean, and who perhaps not coincidentally is also the largest financial contributor to the Trump campaign and the Kennedy campaign.

This video begins after that part and focuses on statements Trump has been making at campaign rallies, during which he tells the audience not that they won't have to vote in the future - but that they don't need to vote in this election.  Because he already has enough votes.

That could be simply delusional, or a willing misinterpretation of current polling trends.  But the more ominous implication is that he is telling his crowd they don't need to vote this year because his people have made arrangements to secure the election by manipulating vote counting or vote total certifications.

Listen to her analysis for five minutes.  I'll leave the comment thread open in case Trump supporters wish to offer a different interpretation.

Here's a link to the Rolling Stone article.

Remembering the leeches of Leech Lake

I've just returned from a vacation at Leech Lake in northern Minnesota, which I visited every summer for most of my childhood.  The lake's name is an anglicisation of the Ojibwa Gaa-zagaskwaajimekaag ("lake abundant with bloodsuckers"), and it seemed that way back in the 1950s.   When the fish aren't biting, one spends a lot of time gazing down into the water, and it wasn't unusual to see leeches swimming by (we didn't use them for bait, though others often did).  And after swimming (including at the city lakes down around Minneapolis) it was a common experience to pluck a tiny black leech from one's toeweb or from one's ankle.

But this week the title of an article in the "Curious Minnesota" section of the StarTribune asks "What happened to all the leeches in Leech Lake?"  There is no definitive answer in the article, though the common anecdotal observation is that the leeches are much less common than they were in our childhood.  

See also -

A Simplified Key to the Leeches of Minnesota

Leeches make wonderful pets

Leech swallows worm

Image (credit Kim Hyatt/Star Tribune) cropped for size from the original.

The top 25 college majors

Data based on 121,000 loan applications between 2016 and 2023, so it's likely not valid to extrapolate the results to all college students.  Not surprising to see Business at the top.  I was curious to see what's at the bottom:

English majors continue their long downward trend, but seem to have rebounded from near oblivion in 2022.  I'll assume the data are mostly meaningless, so I'll file this under curiosities.

Jon Stewart muses about Kamala Harris

 

I've set up the video to start at the 2:42 mark.  For those who want to skip to the LOL moments, go to 6:15, 9:32, and 11:58.  The monologue effectively ends at 15:00, at which point it reverts to standard comedy schtick.

Comments closed for this post.

What is this?

Posted at the Jewelry subreddit with the question as to whether this item found on a seashore could be a pearl.  The discussion thread has not yet produced a definitive answer.

Addendum:  A tip of the blogging cap to reader Bob, who delved deep into the extended comments to find evidence that this is "plastic purge" (melted plastic), perhaps from a beach campfire or a fire on a boat.