Halloween Deco

Halloween is not celebrated much here in Germany, in fact there is only one shop which is in the neighbouring village which has Halloween decorations, so here are my photos. Friend Daniel runs the bakery there which has sidelines as a 10 seat cafe and the village post office.

At the front door there is a scarecrow crucifixtion which caused severe irritation amongst the more religious catholic ladies in the village ;-)

Over in the western corner there is a witch-cum-fortune-teller lady.

And this is SWMBO getting her fortune told, she thinks.

Down at kiddie height is a hollowed pumpkin filled with sweeties, but when you put your hand in the bowl a skeletal hand pops up to grab them instead, frightening the smaller kids.

The local taxidermist supplied the dead cat, I thought they were black???

And finally, a chopped off head after being hung.

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on October 24, 2025 permalink Comments Email

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World Library Day / Magna Carta

Today is World Library Day; here are the stats for Germany.

In 2021 our local city, Paderborn, won the prize for best German library. This year Dresden is best. Nationwide 311,8 million books/digital media were borrowed. On average each borrower spent 27 minutes daily reading per book, we oldies (65+) averaged 54 minutes whereas the twens only spent 11 minutes daily reading library books. This year we are up to 8900 public and university libraries. Currently 37% of readers claim to read daily or several times a week.

Our small village is served by a book bus carrying about 7000 books/media. Customers are mostly children and pensioners. Some villages have recycled their telephone booths to hold a couple of hundred books for the same users.

Personally, I tend to buy my own books, so getting access to foreign (e.g. English) books otherwise not easily available, except for english language (text-)books and reference books from the university library.

Currently I am reading a book called 1215, the year of the Magna Carta. The ISBN is 0-340-82475-1.

On june 15th 1215 in the UK, 25 rebel barons forced the evil King John (think the Trump of that era) to meet them at Runnymede (south of Windsor) where he was not allowed to leave until his seal was attached to the charter in front of him. This was the Magna Carta. Americans often claim that their constitution is based on this document. It is. As a student in the sixties in London (UK) I went to the British Museum to see one (of four from 26) remaining original documents they have. It is in latin and written in long spidery lines of black ink, so hard to read. There are 63 paragraphs, which at that time I had not read.

Recently, I found a modern translation online. A dozen words were not in my vocabulary since they required a knowledge of feudal administrative rankings. However, this modern translation understood this, displaying the feudal words in green and using a mouseover to explain them. So, finally I got to read the Magna Carta. I can recommend that you (and Trump) do so too.

Pax vobiscum.

Copyright ^© Ole Phat Stu on October 24, 2025 permalink Comments Email

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Florence Nightingale, mathematician!

Were you to ask the average person "Who was Florence Nightingale and for what was she famous?", they would reply "A nurse...". If pushed hard, they might manage to append "...during the Crimean War (1853-1856)". I'd bet Pi to one that noone would reply "The mathematician who co-invented Pie-charts".

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) - often referred to as "The Lady with the Lamp" - was indeed a nurse, in 1844 becoming a leading advocate for improved medical care in the infirmaries of the day. In October 1854, she and a staff of 38 women volunteer nurses went to the Crimea. Medicines were scarce, hygiene unheard of, and mass infections were common, many fatal. Ten times more soldiers died from illnesses such as typhus, typhoid, cholera and dysentery than from battle wounds. Within 6 months of her arrival, the mortality rate dropped from 42 percent (sic!) to a mere 2 percent She had emphasized hygiene, an adequate diet, sewer ventilation and patients' activity.

She advised the Royal Commission on the Health of the Army (as a woman, she could not be appointed to the Royal Commission); but she wrote the commission's 1,000-plus page report, which contained statistical reports, including her 'coxcomb' diagrams.

She was talented at maths as a child, but (again, being a woman) was not allowed to study it. Later she exhibited a talent for statistics and came up with the polar area diagram (also known as the Nightingale rose diagram), a form of Pie-Chart :-

In 1859 Florence Nightingale was elected the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society and she later became an honorary member of the American Statistical Association.

Every time you use a Pie-chart in your presentations, or generate one from your spreadsheet, I ask you quietly to toast Florence Nightingale, statistician :-)

Comments (1)
Jane (UK) points out that "You are 2 days early with this post. She went to the Crimea on 22nd October 1854." My oversight.

Copyright ^© Stu Savory Photo taken in 2008, permalink Comments Email

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