Improve your English

Aside from their fascism, what immediately appears is poor spelling, bad punctuation, limited vocabulary etc etc, making Donald Trump appear to be the texting jeenyus he would like to be. I assume this is due to the poor education provided in rural USA.

But elsewhere it is similar. When I was in India I saw ads for English language coaching schools also with spelling mistakes and bad punctuation on their posters. Not a good recommendation. Neither is their address.

So I would like to point you to a book to improve the situation.

Early car accidents :-(

But it wasn't just men who were driving; Carl Benz's wife Bertha Benz did the first long-distance (106km) trip in his car in 1888. As immediate feedback she even invented brake linings ;-) She got great press for this ride and women drivers (and Benz cars) became highly regarded in Germany at the time as a result.

Not so in the UK though, where traffic accidents had first started killing people. Irishwoman Bridget Driscoll (aged 44) was the first (1896) recorded case of a pedestrian killed in a collision with a motor car in the UK. The car was going at 4mph, but the pedestrian didn't look out for traffic as she expected none. In 1869 the very first fatality had been another irishwoman, Mary Ward, who fell off a steam car turning a corner too sharply, which then drove over her.

1899 saw the first traffic death in the USA, needless to say a New York (electric) taxicab caused it. Elaine Herzberg was the first recorded case of a pedestrian fatality (in 2018) involving a self-driving car, which hit her. She was not using the nearby pedestrian crossing.

Most hilarious was the Irish policeman who tried to arrest a polish driving licence :-)

Comments (3)
Billions of Versions... wrote " The day after Bridget Driscoll was killed, the first injury lawyer showed up." Shit happens, it`s entropy.
Cop Car wrote " I cannot personally vouch for the truth of the matter, the alleged incident having occurred 37 years before my birth but, in primary school in Kansas City, Missouri, we were taught that two cars had collided, head-on, in Kansas City in 1901 – between the only two cars in town. According to the story, no one was seriously injured." Here, at least, noone kept records of all the horse and cart accidents at the time. Nowadays those are the rare ones reported in the local paper.
Schorsch explains "120 years ago regular folk had horses and the rich had cars. Nowadays regular folk have cars and only the rich have horses." First world problems.

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on January 17, 2023 permalink Comments Email

Astronomy 101

There is a comet coming around in the next two weeks, with the very forgettable name of C/2022 E3 (ZTF). But since we don't get to see many comets, I thought I'd give you this heads-up. The comet will reach its perihelion(closest to the sun) on January 12, 2023, at a distance of 1.11 AU (166 million km) and the closest approach to Earth will be on February 1, 2023, at a distance of 0.28 AU (42 million km). The comet is expected to become visible to the naked eye, but binoculars or a small telescope should see it well. Last comet I saw was Halley, so I hope to see this one too, cloud cover permitting. You go look too!

Years ago, I took an evening class in astronomy. It showed us photos of each of the planets, one each week, and one week focussed on the moon, showing all sides. They also gave us maps so we could learn the names of craters etc.

Now I particularly remember from this class a girl who was the very precursor of Philomena Cunk, as played by UK comedienne Diane Morgan. Ill informed, even ignorant, but utterly self-confident, Cunk has gone viral with her interviews of experts. Go watch some of her interviews and blow your mind!

Philomena looked at her map and asked where the stallions were on the moon. She couldn't see any stallions, just lots of mares :-) The lecturer didn't understand her until she pointed to the mares. Then the whole class erupted in laughter. But the lecturer patiently explained that Mare was latin for sea. Philomena objected because seas were blue on maps, not gray. Then the whole class erupted in laughter again.

Philomena didn't show up for any of the rest of the term.

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on January 8, 2023 permalink Comments Email

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Sunday, January 1, 2023

A family portrait

As it is a new year, let us start off on a positive note with a triptych that artist friend Udalrike Hamelmann painted of us for Xmas 2022.

Each triangular canvas is about 8 inches on each side. Outlines in gold leaf.

I had expected it to be more photorealistic, but as SWMBO pointed out, that's what cameras are for :-)

Comments (1)
Billions of Versions... wrote " I see the dog is in its proper place of importance." How did you guess, Mike?

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on January 1, 2023 permalink Comments Email

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Link to the previous month's blog.

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