Nightcap

In today's common parlance a "nightcap" would be a recreational beverage taken in the predormital period, but in the broader sweep of history a "nightcap" was literally a hat worn during sleep (the embroidered one pictured above is from the early seventeenth century, in the decorative arts holdings of the British Museum). Modern readers would associate a nightcap with Ebenezer Scrooge or perhaps with the narrator of "A Visit from St Nicholas" ("... and mamma in her kerchief and me in my cap/ had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap...").

With the advent of widespread indoor heating in the 20th century, nightcaps became "old-fashioned" except for "boudoir caps" worn to protect elaborate hairstyles during sleep or to cover messy hair during nighttime trips to air-raid shelters.

Here in the Upper Midwest, commonsense personal finance dictates turning thermostats down during the night - but when the room temperature reaches the low 60s, I personally find it harder to get to sleep, so I started wearing a beanie made by Smartwool.  It was designed for outdoor sports (thin to fit under a helmet), but it makes a world of difference for sleeping in a cold room.

Truly amazing drone show

Since the component parts can be reused, one would have to think this marks the beginning of the end of fireworks displays.

Related:  Annoyed by loud music, man uses drone to shoot fireworks at neighbor.

She wanted to be a veterinarian

But now she's Queen of Denmark.  Her story is told in the New York Times.

...when Mary Donaldson, then a 28-year-old from Tasmania working in real estate, met “Fred” — also known as Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark — at the Slip Inn in September 2000, she was suddenly plunged into an entirely different fairy tale...

But toward Mary, who is seen as relatable and down-to-earth, that republican bent does not apply. “Mary’s relentless abjuration of drama, her enthusiastic commitment to causes in the public interest and her truly rare championing of the LGBTQ+ community in Denmark and beyond” appeal even to fervent anti-monarchists...

And then there is the improbable back story. When Mary and Frederik met, Frederik was visiting Sydney for the Olympic Games. One of the people with him asked an Australian friend to join them at the pub. The friend brought her sister, who brought her own friend who brought his roommate, Mary...

She attended public school, rode horses, played sports and had an otherwise unremarkable upbringing, before studying law and commerce in college and moving to Melbourne and then Sydney to pursue a career in advertising.

“I don’t recall wishing that one day I would be a princess,” she told reporters shortly after the couple became engaged in 2003. “I wanted to be a veterinarian.”

More on the Danish "bicycle monarchy" (no crown except on a coffin, grandchildren stripped of prince and princess status,  king/queen as servants of the people, not the other way around) in the Washington Post.

This is a "dinosaur sandwich cutter"

I didn't know such things existed (or that there was a need for them).  But on the other hand I just discovered that there is a subreddit called What Is My Cookie Cutter?, where this example was posted.  You learn something every day.

"Things You Might Not Know" is ending

 (But not Things You Wouldn't Know If We Didn't Blog Intermittently)

Tom Scott is ending his ten year series of YouTube videos, which he tentatively entitled "Things You Might Not Know" when he started.

On New Year’s Day, exactly a decade since the first Things You Might Not Know video was published, Scott posted his last. “I’ve been throwing stuff at the internet since 1999, and for many, many years, that stuff went almost nowhere,” he said on the valedictory posting. “I remember thinking so many times during all those years … will any of this stuff I’m making ever work? Well, this did.”

The final video, embedded below, begins with some introductory words, and at about the 5-minute mark it morphs into a series of clips from his many video adventures

Tom reports being tired and burned out and desirous of spending more time on other things, including family.  I quite agree.  I've been blogging TYWKIWDBI for 16 years and have often thought about quitting.  But not yet. 

President Grant's prediction

I thought this might be fake, but apparently it is true.

In the book Words of Our Hero, Ulysses S. Grant, published circa 1885, the remarks appear in a transcribed speech attributed to Grant. According to the book, the speech was given to the Annual Reunion of the Army of Tennessee on September 29 1875.

Reposted from 2021 

Dancing the Charleston

The Charleston is a dance named after the harbor city of Charleston, South Carolina. The rhythm was popularized in mainstream dance music in the United States by a 1923 tune called "The Charleston" by composer/pianist James P. Johnson, which originated in the Broadway show Runnin' Wild and became one of the most popular hits of the decade...

While the dance probably came from the "star" or challenge dances that were all part of the African-American dance called Juba, the particular sequence of steps which appeared in Runnin' Wild were probably newly devised for popular appeal. "At first, the step started off with a simple twisting of the feet, to rhythm in a lazy sort of way. [This could well be the Jay-Bird.] When the dance hit Harlem, a new version was added. It became a fast kicking step, kicking the feet, both forward and backward and later done with a tap." Further changes were undoubtedly made before the dance was put on stage. In the words of Harold Courlander, while the Charleston had some characteristics of traditional Black American dance, it "was a synthetic creation, a newly devised conglomerate tailored for widespread popular appeal." Although the step known as "Jay-Bird", and other specific movement sequences are of Afro-American origin, no record of the Charleston being performed on the plantation has been discovered.

Lots more information at the link.  Here is an hour-long instructional video demonstating the component steps by this same young lady.

"Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House"

And Mrs. Blandings (Myrna Loy) tries to get her ideal color scheme incorporated into the house.  In the screencap embedded above, she is showing the "boss painter" a thread, which she can't loan to him because it is rare and hard to find...

INT. THE FOYER - LATE AFTERNOON

               A general flurry of activity; Gussie and several workmen 

               carrying furniture upstairs, unpacking barrels, etc. Muriel, 

               list and samples in hand, is explaining her color scheme to 

               Mr. PeDelford, a polite, cigar-smoking, noncommittal boss 

               painter. In the b.g., casually leaning on the bannister is 

               PeDelford's taciturn and somewhat skeptical-looking assistant.

                                     MURIEL

                         Now I want the living room to be a 

                         soft green.

                              (PeDelford nods)

                         Not quite as bluish as a robin's 

                         egg, but yet not as yellow as daffodil 

                         buds.

                                     PEDELFORD

                         Mm.

                                     MURIEL

                              (handing him a sample)

                         The best sample I could get is a 

                         little too yellow, but don't let 

                         whoever mixes it go to the other 

                         extreme and get it too blue. It should 

                         just be sort of a grayish yellow 

                         green.

                                     PEDELFORD

                              (making a note)

                         Mm-hmm.

               They turn to the dining room.

                                     MURIEL

                         Now the dining room I'd like yellow. 

                         Not just yellow, a very gay yellow.

                                     PEDELFORD

                         Mm-hmm.

                                     MURIEL

                         Something bright and sunshiny.

                              (sudden inspiration)

                         I tell you, Mr. PeDelford, if you'll 

                         just send one of your workmen to the 

                         A&P for a pound of their best butter 

                         and match it exactly, you can't go 

                         wrong.

                                     PEDELFORD

                              (making a note)

                         Mm.

                                     MURIEL

                         This is the paper we're going to use 

                         here in the foyer.

                              (hands sample to him)

                         It's flowered but I don't want the 

                         ceiling to match any of the colors 

                         of the flowers. There are some little 

                         dots in the background, and it's 

                         these dots I want you to match. Not 

                         the little greenish dots near the 

                         hollyhock leaf, but the little bluish 

                         dot between the rosebud and the 

                         delphinium blossom. Is that clear?

               PeDelford looks carefully at the sample, then:

                                     PEDELFORD

                              (making note)

                         Mm-hmm.

                                     MURIEL

                         The kitchen's to be white. Not a 

                         cold, antiseptic hospital white -- a 

                         little warmer but not to suggest any 

                         other color but white.

                                     PEDELFORD

                              (note)

                         Mm.

                                     MURIEL

                         Now for the powder room, I want you 

                         to match this thread.

                              (hands him thread)

                         You can see it's practically an apple 

                         red. Somewhere between a healthy 

                         Winesap and an unripened Jonathan.

                                     PEDELFORD

                              (making note)

                         Mm.

               There is a crash from the kitchen.

                                     MURIEL

                         Will you excuse me?

               Muriel hastily exits toward the kitchen. PeDelford turns to 

               his assistant.

                                     PEDELFORD

                         Got it, Charlie?

                                     CHARLIE

                              (deadpan; indicating 

                              rooms with his thumb)

                         Green, yellow, blue, white, red.

                                     PEDELFORD

                         Check.

                                                                   DISSOLVE

I have always loved that scene, and every time I see it I appreciate it more.

Text from DailyScript.

Today I learned about olive oil

This morning as I consumed my daily (over)dose of Reddit, I encountered a gif about "sunflower oil extraction."  I don't know how to embed gifs, but you can follow the link.  It showed - without explanation - an interesting process in which a stack of "pancakes" several feet tall is crushed with a hydraulic press.  As I watched, I wondered if the stacked objects were neatly trimmed sunflower heads, but a pair of helpful comments in the discussion thread led me to the video I've embedded above - about olive oil rather than sunflower oil.

The embedded video is exactly what I enjoy adding to TYWKIWDBI (see the explanation of my acronym at the top of this page).  The olive oil video explains concisely and clearly, in excellent English, with relevant visuals and subtle background music, things I didn't know about the subject.  There may be other equivalent videos at the source, which I don't have time to explore.  But this one was excellent.

We'll Meet Again (Vera Lynn, 1939)

For New Year's Eve, instead of embedding fireworks I've chosen a classic song. "We'll Meet Again" was a signature tune of World War II:

The song... resonated with soldiers going off to fight and their families and sweethearts. The assertion that "we'll meet again" is optimistic, as many soldiers did not survive to see their loved ones again. Indeed, the meeting place at some unspecified time in the future would have been seen by many who lost loved ones to be heaven.

There have been many versions as modern performers have covered the piece, but Vera Lynn is the obvious choice, since she popularized the song during the war, and it became one of her signature pieces. The video of this song most often seen is the one using the final moments of Dr. Strangelove, but those images of nuclear blasts were a little too dismal for tonight; I thought this one employing stills from WWII was at least a bit more upbeat.

The message of the song is for all TYWKIWDBI readers, especially the old-timers. It has been an interesting year; I've enjoyed having your company for this curious adventure. We'll meet again - tomorrow...

Addendum: The Guardian has a story about Vera Lynn at age 92, and about the upcoming publication of her autobiography.

...at the age of 92, she has done it again, hitting No 1 in the album charts last night with her offering We'll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn and usurping Bob Dylan, 68, as the oldest artist to grace the top spot... Her album fought off stiff competition from the Beatles, who occupied the 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th, 21st, 24th, 29th, 31st, 33rd, 37th and 38th spots...

It is 70 years to the month since Lynn, then 22, first recorded We'll Meet Again, which became a symbolic song of the second world war... Last night's No 1 made her the only artist to feature in the UK single and album charts in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Update 2010:  I needed some music to post on New Year's Eve, so this repost finds life once more.  See you guys next year...

Update 2014:  Familiarity with this song skyrocketed in the U.S. this year when it was chosen by Stephen Colbert for the concuding segment of his farewell program.  I'll leave the original version embedded at the top; the Colbert version is a bit too celebrity-centered for my taste.

Meanwhile, in England Vera Lynn reached her 97th birthday in March.

She is the oldest living person to have a top 20 UK album after Vera Lynn: National Treasure - The Ultimate Collection reached number 13.

Reposted for New Year's Eve, 2019.  One of my all-time favorite songs.  I also note it was featured in one of the trailers for the upcoming Westworld season 3:

YouTube link.

Reposted on more time (probably not the last) to make note of the death today of Vera Lynn at age 103.  Here's an outstanding mashup of multiple performances of her signature song:

YouTube link.

One of the best songs ever because it implies that death will not keep us apart. Reposted again for the new year of 2024.

The unappreciated threat of ransomware

Everyone has heard stories about unfortunate businessmen who have had their restaurant or store rendered inoperative until they paid "ransomware" to a cybercriminal.  The Economist explains that ransomware technology presents immense potential damages on a much larger scale:

In October cyber-criminals hacked into the British Library, a storied institution in the heart of London, encrypted its data and demanded money in exchange for the key. Months later the library and its catalogue of 14m books remain offline, with no end in sight. Similar ransomware attacks—in which criminals encrypt or steal data and demand a ransom to decrypt or refrain from leaking it—are not only undermining business and sapping prosperity across North America and Europe. Financially motivated attacks on infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals and power utilities, also pose a large and growing threat to national security. Western countries now face what a British parliamentary committee described on December 13th as “a high risk [of] a catastrophic ransomware attack at any moment”...

Ransomware has been mainly a Western problem but it is spreading globally. America, Australia, Britain, Canada and Germany are the most affected countries, but Brazil and India are not far behind them. Victims span the public and private sectors—in recent weeks attacks have hit an Italian cloud-service provider that hosts government data, Germany’s energy agency and a Chinese bank in New York, among others. An attack on Christmas Eve disrupted emergency care at a German hospital network, and attacks on the education sector are rising. This adds up to a slow-burning but serious national-security crisis. “It is the one serious organised crime that could bring the country to a standstill,” warned Graeme Biggar, the director of Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA), recently...

 The hardest part of a ransomware attack was once cashing out and laundering the ransom. Attackers would have to buy high-end goods using stolen banking credentials and sell them on the black market in Russia, losing perhaps 60-70% of the profit along the way. Cryptocurrency has enabled them to cash out immediately with little risk...

At the same time, ransomware’s business model is also changing. In the past hackers demanded a ransom in exchange for decrypting a victim’s data. But scrambling data is usually the most technically demanding part of an attack, and the part most liable to alert a victim. Now attackers almost always exfiltrate the data and threaten to publish it online; in a growing minority of attacks they do not even bother encrypting it...

Generative artificial-intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT are helping improve everything from the quality of English in phishing emails to the potency of malware, says Mr Lyne. He points out that the online forums used by cyber-criminals already have dedicated AI sections. Ransomware syndicates remain “well-resourced, adaptable and [are] growing bolder”, says Mr MacColl, despite all the disruptive efforts of the past three years. “I’m fairly confident in saying they’re still doing as much harm to UK national security as anything Russia, China, Iran or North Korea does in cyberspace.” 

More at the link.

Rainbow aurora above an Icelandic waterfall

And capped off by the central band of the Milky Way.  Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day.

"Final Cut"

Explained at Cinerama Film:

Rickroll

Clever.  Via Bored Panda, where there is more science humor.  (re "rickroll")

Wallpaper

A screencap I took while recently rewatching North by Northwest for the umpteenth time.  I am intrigued by the stylish wallpaper in the background of the hotel room, which brings back vivid memories of the 1950s