2023 The Smile for Today is...

[rcperryls]

So many things to smile about today.
Mabel, I love that photo. I don't have a laptop, but years ago Shirley( sister of Laverne who is my avatar) loved to walk across the keyboard to the computer. I finally put what is supposed to be one of those plastic kitchen cupboard racks that you would normally use to add a shelf to a cupboard over the keyboard. That was after she walked on the keyboard while I was working on something and deleted all my bookmarks. To this day I have never quite figured out how that happened. Fortunately I had a backup and could retrieve it. After that she would sit sweetly on my lap and would occasionally stick a quick paw out to tap a key. or walk in the narrow space in front of the keyboard and stick a paw out to tap a key. Fortunately never deleted anything.

Jo: awesome photos and stories about your birds. I don't get anywhere near as many. I currently have Cardinals who I think are planning to nest in the bushes in the backyard which are next to the house and adjacent to the window with the catio. Nearly everyday the female sits on top of the catio and pecks at the window. I think this must be to let us know that she doesn't want Rosey any where near the catio when nesting starts. not a problem now as the weather has been cold and often rainy.

Richard: I hope that Ozzie has recovered from his trauma of first an unknown person in his house and then the next day an attack (in his view) of German Shepherds in his very own garden. I hope he received lots of comforting cuddles and treats for reassurance. And then the ongoing barrage of traffic on top of so many terrors on the week-end is almost too much to contemplate. Monday must be a true relief for him.

Carole

[rcperryls]

Something different from today's other "smiles". I've never seen this before and it's beautiful and made me smile.

Choreographed, limb-centric performance

Carole

[Mabel Figworthy]

I think that was at the paralypics, wasn't it? Yes, it's beautifully done!

[Roland]

That was after she walked on the keyboard while I was working on something and deleted all my bookmarks. To this day I have never quite figured out how that happened.

I had taken time off work to take my son to a specialist. Work was on the way, so I stopped off to show off my son. There was no Internet, so I had a Word Processor, not a computer. I was one of the best at operating it, always reading manuals and learning new tricks. While I was sitting at my desk, my son (not quite a year old) was playing with the keys. To get from screen A, I had to go through a series of screens to reach screen E. I had asked other secretaries, and nobody knew a quicker way. While DS was playing at keyboard, I saw the screen jump from A directly to E. I put it back on A, and he did it again. It took about 3 or 4 times before I was able to see the exact keys he pressed.

[Roland]

Came across this link….so cute.

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/22/11505968 ... anta-claus

[Mabel Figworthy]

I wonder how they're going to get out of that one

And what a little genius your son was! I hope they immediately offered him a job !

[Mabel Figworthy]

Remember the kitten-on-the-laptop? Einstein (for that is his highly inappropriate name) grew up with definite neediness and insecurity issues. This picture was taken by my friend packing to come and visit me in the UK:

[fccs]

My cat, Jackson, lays in my suitcase if I leave it open, which I try not to (because he ends up removing stuff I’ve packed). When it’s closed, he lays on top of it.

[rcperryls]

The minute a suitcase came out and was opened for packing, Laverne was on it or in it.


Carole

[wendywombat]

Our lovely GShepherd Sophie was so determined not to be left out of any caravan or camping car holidays she would lie in front of the door and we had to step over her whilst packing up.
Not easy when carrying boxes and bedding
She never went upstairs but would also lie on the second to top step if we were sorting clothes to take as well!

Of course, she was always included in any of these holidays and loved being out and away with us.

[Mabel Figworthy]

An audio smile this time!

I recently discovered the podcast "The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry" on BBC Sounds and am currently binge-listening. Just finished the introduction to series 15, which contains some examples of real-life scientific research that make you think, "why? why???"

I was irresistibly reminded of the PhD thesis titles I used to cut out of my university newspaper, one of my favourites being "The Sumerian golden tablet royal inscriptions, 597-594BC" (I am paraphrasing, please do not feel you need to correct those dates.)

Anyway, if you want to find out what the side effects of sword swallowing are, or whether the red-footed tortoise suffers from contagious yawning, listen from 5mins 55secs into the programme

Strange research

[rcperryls]

I just might try that. Whenever I see one of the news clips that is about strange things that have been researched I always check them out. There is a really interesting sci fi story I read years ago (don't remember the title, the author or anything) but the focus was on how long it would take a PhD student to find a topic for their dissertation since everything had been covered. Not likely, but that story stuck in my mind, for some reason.
Maybe as an excuse to why the only graduate degrees I ever got were ones that didn't require writing a thesis or doing a major research project.
There are some really strange studies that have been done.

Carole

[Serinde]

And what's wrong exactly with 'The Sumerian golden tablet royal inscriptions, 597-594BC'? Some of my best friends have written dissertations not entirely dissimilar to this! I myself once wrote 30,000 words on how to get rid of medieval English monarchs. Could have covered the same ground with a couple of paragraphs, actually. What gave me purchase in the topic was that by the 14th century, the rebellious nobility were trying to do it with some semblance of legality, which was a non-starter, in truth, but they did try.

[richardandtracy]

At least they are of some interest to read.
My undergraduate final year project was "A BASIC translator to convert ISO 6983 machine paths into Heidenhain TNC 44[IIRC] CNC machine language". (This was before 'G Code' made such programs machine independent). As you can imagine, it was a real page turner. The 77 page report detailed every subroutine & how the translation coped with the input variations. Had to type two top copies on a 30yo manual portable typewriter because I had no computer at home to type it up on in 1987. And, at the time I was a 2 finger typist so ended up with severely bruised index fingertips.

The first person to try to use the program found it too difficult to understand how to operate the program and gave up on it.
They needed to do the following:

1. Type an input filename
2. Press carriage return.
3. Type an output filename
4. Press carriage return.

That. Was. it. Hrrumph. I wasn't best pleased.

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

According to DH, who was in Quality Control for some of his working life, the trouble with developing a fool-proof program or machine is that there are always bigger fools out there than you think... He made it his business whenever asked to look at some new development to press and pull everything that could be pressed or pulled; and when told "Don't touch that!" he would always say, "somebody will!"

Serinde, absolutely nothing wrong with it, except it always struck me that three years' worth of inscriptions really shouldn't take you four years to study and write about, especially at the tax payers' expense (as we still had a grant system at that point (which they changed half-way through my MA studies))

[Serinde]

But it isn't just the inscriptions, of course. The time might involve travel to where the tablets are held (access is often tricky; you might need to find a grant to pay for travel and subsistence). But most importantly, the inscriptions need to be put in their historical context. Lots of reading and research. Given the destruction in Palmyra, the looting of Iraqi museums and wholesale destruction of antiquities there, not to mention the dynamiting of the Bamiyan Buddhas, nothing is safe anymore. There is a feeling among some historians that they are engaged in "rescue" history the way that archaeologist are doing emergency and rescue archaeology along, among other places, the HS2 corridor. Of course, I have skin in the game, as they say, but am fiercely of the opinion that the more we know about ourselves and our past civilisations, the more clearly we ought to be able to see the pitfalls before us. (I am equally aware that governments in particularly are only partially sighted.)

Re "don't touch that". Part of my misspent youth involved the hospitality industry. If I'd had a nickel each time I'd tell a diner, "the plate is hot, don't touch it" only to have them reach out to check the veracity of my statement and be shocked, shocked, I tell you... well, I'd be rich and able to go on this stitching retreat. The list of tutors...!

[rcperryls]

I want to go. I read through all of the information and I want to go.

Carole

[Roland]

TTC = Toronto Transit Commission (our public transit system) John Tory = Mayor.

There have been a lot of problems, various delays, as well as a lot of violence on busses and subways. People get mad at TTC personnel as if it’s their fault.

As they were pulling in to a station where everyone was being kicked off a subway, this is the message the driver gave.

https://twitter.com/adamcf/status/1618453276445544450?s=61&t=XR_RrSGtWEQ-cBRrroLKhQ

[Mabel Figworthy]

Serinde, I take your point on the only partially remembered royal inscriptions. Still, there are topics that really make me wonder

As for that retreat - if there was a way of booking it in the UK, would that at least make it a little less expensive....?

The list of tutors is incredible, and I was rather chuffed to see one project that I have actually done: Helen McCook's goldwork racehorse! (And I've got the kit for Helen Richman's little fox)

[rcperryls]

One of the differences between dogs and cats



Carole