Miserable, miserable weather this weekend – cold, wet and windy but not a patch, it would seem, on the ice storms to afflict New England. Keep warm!
We were delighted to receive not one but two responses to last weeks’ Weakly news, both of which related to the discussion of time. Hope wrote that she was in the midst of teaching her class of fourth graders about time and looked forward to sharing some of the information I had enclosed. She might even ask her class to speculate what would happen if everyone in the world stood facing the same direction and all gave a hefty blow at the same time – could we slow down or speed up the pace of the earth’s rotation? She also suggested (and I agree) that she didn’t want this year to last even one second longer than it had to!
Susie also shared some observations about David’s introduction to day light savings time:
“David as a little boy (about 4 or 5) asked about Day-light savings one day in the summer and I explained how we change the clocks, etc. and he seemed satisfied but the next day asked if it was Day-light savings today? And I patiently explained the whole thing to him again and once again he seemed to go off satisfied. Well this happened for a number of days in a row and finally he asked, “when is night-time savings?” and I guess we now have our answer – we’re at the time of year when we save up all our night-times.”
We had a scare with Molly in the week which has still to play itself out fully although she seems much improved this morning. We awoke one morning to find her in a very confused and agitated state, seemingly very skittish and nervous. When Pen went to let her in from her early morning constitutional to the back garden, she discovered that she was no where to be found. It turns out she had wandered off, somewhat absent-mindedly perhaps, and taken herself down to the recreation ground. She was discovered by a neighbour wandering in the vicinity of the village hall. For the rest of the day and through the evening she continued in a very confused and bewildered state and we began to speculate that perhaps she had suffered some sort of stroke in the night. The following day, when she hadn’t improved to any appreciable extent, Pen took her to the vet who said that he did not think it was a stroke – she certainly is demonstrating no physical disabilities – but he was at a loss to identify the cause of her confusion. Pen recognised that she had behaved in a somewhat similar fashion (certainly the nervousness and skittishness) when she was eventually diagnosed with pyometra about seven months ago and wondered whether, in spite of the fact that she had been spayed as a result, her hormones were playing up at about the time when her next season would have been due. The vet agreed that it could be possible and essentially left us with a watching brief. Friday evening she began to round up and corral all the winter gloves and cuddle them so it looks as if it might, indeed, be some hormonal imbalance which is causing her current condition. Let’s hope it passes quickly and that she returns to her normal, bouncy and lively self.
There was so much great stuff in the news this week that I almost couldn’t decide what to share with you. So, this week I am afraid you will have to put up with two snippets, both from the BBC web site.
The first – did you know that the computer mouse was first demonstrated forty years ago?
The mouse hits 40-year milestone
By Mark Ward
Technology correspondent, BBC News
The humble computer mouse celebrates its 40th anniversary today.
On 9 December 1968 hi-tech visionary Douglas Engelbart first used one to demonstrate novel ways of working with computers.
The first mouse that Dr Engelbart used in the demo at the Fall Joint Computer Conference (FJCC) was made of wood and had one button.
Much of the technology shown off in the demo inspired the creation of the hardware and software now widely used.
"It was a good show, but it was all real," said Dr Jeff Rulifson, now director of Sun's VLSI research group but in 1968 architect and lead programmer for the software shown off at the FJCC.
Rob Skitmore of the London Science Museum predicts the mouse will remain a dominant force despite new technologies such as touch screens.
Pioneering work
A day of celebration is planned in California to mark the 40th anniversary; with many of the researchers behind the original demo reunited to mark the event.
The mouse, which was built by Bill English, helped Dr Engelbart demonstrate how text files could be clipped, copied and pasted as well as showing ways of using computer networks to collaborate on projects or co-edit documents.
Dr Rulifson joined the group that Dr Engelbart assembled at the Stanford Research Institute in California after meeting the charismatic engineer while attending the FJCC in 1965.
Douglas Engelbart had a clear vision of how computers should help people
"I met Doug and got thoroughly enchanted," Dr Rulifson told the BBC. "I really understood what he was after. I was blown away by the ideas."
Dr Engelbart wanted computers to act as helpers that augmented human intelligence and enabled people to operate far more efficiently and productively than they would without such tools.
The 1968 demonstration showed off the computer system, called NLS, developed to put these ideas into practical form. Most of this, said Dr Rulifson, had to be invented by the team at SRI.
"There were bits and pieces all around," he said. "There was no completely unique set of ideas but we pulled it all together."
Although the mouse was central to what NLS could do, said Dr Rulifson, there was more to what Dr Engelbart wanted to achieve.
"I think people get fixated on the mouse," he said. "It's a symbol they can hang on to but the idea behind it was this idea of putting text into NLS and giving it an entirely new flexibility."
"We had full text editing and hyperlinks - the mass of what we use today," said Dr Rulifson.
In the 1968 demo Dr Rulifson was at the SRI Lab and appeared on screen in Brooks Hall auditorium while helping Dr Engelbart to show how co-workers could use NLS to collaborate.
The demo was so far ahead of other uses of computers at the time and the technology on show was so powerfully convincing that one attendee later likened Dr Engelbart's efforts to "dealing lightning with both hands".
Command set
Not only did NLS impress the audience at the FJCC, but it also became the first program scheduled to be used across the fledgling Arpanet that was just being built. NLS is mentioned in the first RFC - the technical documents that describe the workings of what we know today as the internet.
In 1969 SRI, along with UCLA, was one of the two ends of the first link in the network that became Arpanet - and ultimately the internet.
Sadly, said Dr Rulifson, NLS did not win enough people over to become the essential tool that Dr Engelbart envisioned.
"I think what happened was that Doug was very focused on extremely powerful systems for extremely highly-trained people," he said. "NLS had 500 single key commands."
Learning how to use NLS was a formidable task that few took on - despite its potential.
Many of the people that worked with Dr Engelbart at SRI went on to Xerox Parc - another legendary lab in California where many contributed directly to the technologies that led to the personal computer revolution and the world wide web.
Only now is Doug Engelbart's vision starting to be realised, said Dr Rulifson, and the world has yet to catch up with the ideas first aired in 1968.
"Half the vision has come along," said Dr Rulifson. "We could see the day when these things would be small enough to carry about.
"But," he added, "Doug was very frustrated with the stuff that grew up around the PC, because it's too static and paper-like." |
You can see a video and read more about the beginnings of the humble mouse at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7768481.stm
This next piece brought a tear to me eye, mainly because I suspect all of us males have done it at one time or another, whether as a toddler or in later life.
Toddlers' toilet seat crush peril
An increasing number of small boys may be finding toilet training a more painful experience than they anticipated, say safety experts.
Doctors at one English hospital reported four cases in which a toddler's penis had been injured by a falling toilet seat.
The fashion for heavy wooden and ceramic seats is worsening the problem, they say.
Figures suggest there may be up to 250 similar cases a year in the UK.
Dr Joe Philip, from Leighton Hospital in Crewe, said that parents might need to take more precautions to keep their young sons out of A&E.
He called for more seats to be designed to fall slowly, and for heavier seats to be banned from households with young boys.
He even suggested that the social norm of putting the seat down after use be suspended and the seat fixed in an upright position.
He said: "As Christmas approaches many families will be visiting relatives and friends and their recently toilet-trained toddlers will be keen to show how grown up they are by going to the toilet on their own.
"It is important that parents check out the toilet seats in advance, not to mention those in their own homes, and they should accompany their children if necessary."
The four boys visiting the Crewe hospital, aged between two and four, all needed to stay in hospital overnight, although fortunately no lasting damage was done.
They had all lifted the toilet seats themselves, which had then fallen back down onto their penises, the journal BJU International reported.
Increasing risk
Dr Philip said: "A recent market research report has suggested that there has been a worldwide increase in the number of wooden and ceramic toilet seats sold.
"We would not be surprised to hear that other colleagues have noticed an increase in penis crush injuries as a result of this."
He said that parents should consider training their youngsters to hold up the toilet seat with one hand.
A spokeswoman for RoSPA confirmed that the cases at Crewe were not isolated examples.
Sheila Merrill, home safety manager for England, said: "The most recent figures show there are an estimated 250 visits to A&E each year by boys under the age of five involved in similar accidents.
"So perhaps it's advisable that parents with toddlers think twice about having heavy toilet seats while their children are young.
"However, as with children of all ages, in all areas of the home, supervision is always the most crucial aspect in preventing accidents." |
And finally, the following from Private Eye caught my eye, illustrating the importance of a correct understanding of punctuation:
Do not leave your belongings. Unattended thieves operate in this area
London Borough of Camden |
I’m sure all of our thoughts were, and are, with Sarah as we wished Randy a safe and speedy journey to another place yesterday afternoon/evening. Our lives were the richer for having known him.
Much love to you all,
Greg
A man walks out to the street and catches a taxi just going by. He gets into the taxi, and the cabbie says, "Perfect timing, Mister! You're just like Frank."
Passenger: "Who?"
Cabbie: "Frank Feldman. He's a guy who did everything right all the time. Like my coming along when you needed a cab, things happened like that to Frank Feldman every single time."
Passenger: "There are always a few clouds over everybody."
Cabbie: "Not Frank Feldman. He was a terrific athlete. He could have won the Grand-Slam at tennis. He could golf with the pros. He sang like an opera baritone and danced like a Broadway star and you should have heard him play the piano. He was an amazing guy."
Passenger: "Sounds like he was something really special."
Cabbie: "There's more! He had a memory like a computer. He remembered everybody’s birthday. He knew all about wine, which foods to order and which fork to eat them with. He could fix anything. Not like me. I change a fuse, and the whole street blacks out. But Frank Feldman, he could do everything right."
Passenger: "Wow, some guy then."
Cabbie: "He always knew the quickest way to go in traffic and avoid traffic jams. Not like me, I always seem to get stuck in them. But Frank, he never made a mistake, and he really knew how to treat a woman and make her feel good. He would never answer her back even if she was in the wrong; and his clothing was always immaculate, shoes highly polished too -- He was the perfect man! He never made a mistake. No one could ever measure up to Frank Feldman."
Passenger: "An amazing fellow. How did you meet him?"
Cabbie: "Well, I never actually met Frank. He died and I married his damned widow."
These “groaners” came from Donna.
1. The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.
2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.
3. She was only a whisky maker, but he loved her still.
4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.
5. The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.
6. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.
7. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.
8. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.
9. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
11. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.
12 Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
13. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other, 'You stay here, I'll go on a-head.'
14. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
15. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'
16 A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, 'No change yet.'
17. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
18. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium, at large.
19. The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.
20. A backward poet writes in-verse.
21. In democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.
22. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
23. Don't join dangerous cults, practice safe sects!
An older man approaches a younger woman inside the mall. "Excuse me," he said. "I've can't seem to find my wife. Can you talk to me for a couple of minutes?"
The woman, feeling a bit of compassion for the old fellow, said, "Sure, sir, do you know where your wife might be?"
"I have no idea, but every time I talk to a woman with tits like yours, she usually appears out of nowhere."