Playing Card Animation

Read this first: Click on the link below and a playing card will appear on your screen...wait a few moments for it to load, then scroll down below the card and you will see a line that has a little red slider bar in it. Move the slider gradually to the right and stop and watch the show take place, then move it a little more to the right and stop and another show will take place and keep doing this till you are to the end. The marvels of technology. http://www.adobecards.com

It's an wordless advertisement for Adobe Creative Suite 3.
The artistry, engineering and programming are wonderful, and there's music.

The Religious Affiliation of Comic Book Characters

"If people can't stand cartoons about religion, they've got a problem." —Frank Miller, author of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns; Daredevil; Sin City; etc." (28 February 2006)

This was a fun find. Some seem fairly obvious (Thor, Superman), but there are twists and turns and real evidence. It's very interesting.

http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/comic_book_religion.html

"We want this page to be as accurate as possible, backed up by objective, published information and not based on conjecture. We do not want this listing to be slanted toward any particular denominational or religious viewpoint. It is intended to accurately report the composition of comic book character religiosity. If you have corrections, suggestions, additional information, etc., or would like to post an alternative viewpoint, please write to us at webmaster@adherents.com. (Nothing you send to us or say via email will be added to our website without your express permission.) "

Although that page says there is no alphabetical listing, there's this:
http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/

Alistair Cooke on American TV, 1951

I guess I meant to say "Alistair Cooke, from 1951, speaking of American TV in those days":

Alistair Cooke might be best known to Americans as the longtime host of Masterpiece Theatre, on PBS. In England, he was a radio journalist for over sixty years.

When he died in 2004, BBC News began re-running his earlier talks. What was once news is now fascinating history.

Letter from America, Early days of Television. Alistair describes the TV programmes that were available in 1950s America. This Letter was originally heard on the BBC Home Service in January, 1951, and rebroadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Friday, 9 April, 2004.

You can read it or hear it (audio link just to the right, on that page), or both.

The description of the weather program is especially interesting, for such things having been new and also for the size of the U.S. to be so exotic to listeners in the U.K.

Here's a quote from the section about the possible effects on children:

I know what's educational but I don't think that's necessarily the same thing as what is good or bad.

There are links to others of the shows there. Thank you, Schuyler Waynforth, for this item.

Roller coasters and that

Where is this?



It was one of several aerial photos here at Crooked Brains.

Name that Tune: Michael Finnigan, Ten Little Indians

There once was a man named Michael Finnigan
He grew whiskers on his chinnigan
The wind came along and blew them in again
Poor old Michael Finnigan, begin again.

What is that tune!?

It's the same tune at the start of "Way Down Yonder in the Paw-Paw Patch" which I realize many people won't know (and which has a fancier fourth line, musically).

And Raffi sings "Bumpin' up and down in my little red wagon" to that tune with an ending kind of like Michael Finnigan's, without the endless repeats.

And "one little, two little, three little Indians" which isn't politically correct (and has yet a different little end tune).

Some fiddler or concertina player might know the generic tune-name, or older songs with that tune. I might know older songs but it's so common it's in my little-kid brain, not my adult musician brain, like the tune to the ABCs and Twinkle, twinkle little star, which many people don't realize are the same tune for years (and some will realize it when they read this). Baa baa black sheep.

Sunshine and Small Words

I'm interested in lyrics and poems that use all "original English" words--Germanic/Anglo-Saxon words. Without looking deeply into this, it seems to be one. On one pass, I think maybe "pay" and "turn" are from French, but they're from French a thousand years ago, so that's not bad.

Similarly small-word songs are here: SandraDodd.com/smallwords "The morning sun is shining like a red rubber ball." and many more

Sunshine go away today
I don't feel much like dancin'
Some man's gone he's tried to run my life
He don't know what he's askin'
When he tells me I better get in line
I can't hear what he's sayin'
When I grow up, I'm gonna make it mine
These ain't dues I been payin'

How much does it cost
I'll buy it
The time is all we've lost
I'll try it
If he can't even run his own life
I'll be damned if he'll run mine
Sunshine

Sunshine, go away today
I don't feel much like dancin'
Some man's gone he's tried to run my life
He don't know what he's askin'
Working starts to make me wonder where
Fruits of what I do are goin'
When he says in love and war all is fair
He's got cards he ain't showin'

How much does it cost
I'll buy it
The time is all we've lost
I'll try it
If he can't even run his own life
I'll be damned if he'll run mine
Sunshine

Sunshine, come on back another day
I promise you I'll be singin'
This old world, she's gonna turn around
Brand new bells will be ringin'

hand pumps, siphons, water containers

One image I have in my head of how this kind of parenting works is like a hand pump. Some of you might never have used a hand pump on a well, but if it's been sitting a while or the well is deep you might pump this big long handle down and up several times, and nothing happens, but finally you hear the water and then it floods out, more water than you needed. Then the next pump can be controlled because there's water in the pipe already, and it takes just the lightest touch.

Or similarly, siphoning liquid with a short hose, where the beginning is scary and creepy and doesn't seem at all like it would work, but once it's flowing, you don't have to do anything except make sure the end of the hose is below the level of the weight of the water or whatever it is.

Learning and growth are like a limitless reservoir, but we have factors in our culture that limit our access or control or faith that it could even work, or our feeling of ownership of knowledge of growth and learning. Experts. Timetables and charts.

Just in case it would help anyone else to think of it as the flow of water but siphons and hand pumps are unfamiliar, here are some pictures (and they're just interesting anyway):

The one on the left is from Bison Pumps (in Maine). It's a modern version of the cast iron pumps I knew from the mid-20th century (center photo). On the right is a pump from Finland. They're manufacturing pumps in Ghana and Tanzania too.

This one is very interesting, and leads on to another connection: The water container is plastic, but it's a traditional pottery design. In the U.S. we have plastic water buckets, but they're a traditional metal bucket design. (Thanks to Hema Bharadwaj for the link to photos of the non-plastic water containers in use in India.)

added in March 2009, another photo of those water jugs from India. Click it to go to its source (other photos of India):


Thinking about this, though, our current plastic gallon "milk jugs" are based on pottery or glass bottles, only made squarish so they can be packed in safely and tightly for transport. Here's a combo, then: older pump on a forest service site, and people filling up modern "milk jugs" (in New Mexico or Colorado, early 21st century):


Siphoning used to be common for moving gasoline. Gross. I've seen my dad do it many times. In the 70's when gasoline prices went up, people would steal gasoline from cars. Before that, I never saw a locking gas cap. They sold metal springs (like a funnel of coiled wire) to mount inside gas tanks so a siphon hose couldn't be inserted, too.

I never thought of siphoning gasoline again until this week. We have a conversion van we've used for out of town trips. I went with Keith to Costco, the least expensive gasoline in town, and we put $102 worth of gasoline in there. Then a few days later, it wouldn't start and it's in the shop. I'm thinking "We need to get that gasoline back out of there!"

If we were to decide to do that, though, I would try to rig something with the shop vac. (Ah... there are all kinds of hand-squeeze and small-pump plastic siphons for doing this now.)