Musings

Before envelopes, there was letter-locking. This was a European trick, it says here*, for folding a letter and locking it closed with parts of the letter-paper itself, so as to keep its contents concealed from prying eyes. Apparently a recipient judged your folding skills along with your literary talents. This research determined there were a dozen basic styles or techniques for letter-locking.

A fantastic digital manipulation, yes, but not as incredible as blooms.

* “New Technique Reveals Centuries of Secrets in Locked Letters” by William J. Broad, NYTimes, Mar 02.

Posted at 8:27 PM | Comments Off on Blossoming

I labeled this photo dragonfly then wondered: is it? Or is it a damselfly? I do think the artist was going for dragonfly based on wing position (horizontal, away from the body). HOWEVER, by definition, dragonflies have a broader hindwing than forewing—not true of this wonderous creature.

At least that’s the rundown based on WikiPee, which I don’t think is always right, but it’s easy to find and I believe mostly correct…regarding this type on natural history topic, anyway. IMHO

Posted at 6:42 PM | Comments Off on It’s art

Over time, the details of this carnivore sculpture have disappeared, and to me it looks a bit of an elongated lump, and no longer a king of an ecosystem.

WikiPee says Jaguars began as the first automobiles of a motorcycle sidecar company. Sidecar!

Posted at 7:58 PM | Comments Off on Of all things

I wonder how many meter-reader jobs dried up when these were installed across the city? At least I’m pretty sure this is the dark side of an automated water meter that broadcasts pertinent info somehow to…¿passing trucks? ¿low-flying drones? I dunno that part…. Anyway, I find it’s rare that I see the underbelly of these contraptions.

Posted at 8:36 PM | 2 Comments »

The sun came and went several times while I was out, always making me smile.

Lately I’ve been trying to up my daily sixty minutes to around seventy; my success has been uneven, although my (left) knee is holding up. Today I made seventy-four. Whoopee.

The title refers to the wintery transition we made, with our initial use this season of the steering wheel warmer (twice, actually). It came with the car; I don’t imagine we would have ordered it!

Posted at 5:45 PM | Comments Off on Hot wheel

Well there’s a computational photography experiment that was a flop. Portrait mode with spotlight. Not a real spotlight, but an apparent one. Clearly, this technique does not work on a complex subject like these tiny flowers.

However, I do laud such experimentation.

Yes, lots of important current events…just not aired here.

Posted at 8:20 PM | Comments Off on Experimentation

Sometime during the night the wind went silent and I found the change almost eerie. For today, almost entirely sunshine! Yay!

Nurdles are lentil-sized plastic buttons that manufacturers buy to transform into bottle and other shapes to hold their products. An estimated 53 BILLION end up in the ocean every YEAR. Critters think they’re food, and you know there is nothing good about that.

If you can’t find it in yourself to worry about nurdle pollution, think about the plastic bits that are torn and worn away from the whipping action of weed-eaters.

Back to a positive note: sunny day! ☀️

Nurdle photo-story by Annaliese Nurnberg and Gianmarco Maraviglia, “‘Mermaid Tears’: A photographer documents one of the most dangerous marine pollutants,” in the Washington Post, dated 5 October.

Posted at 5:47 PM | Comments Off on New vocab: nurdle

It is Apple season, too. I/we splurged on the new 6 (the first AppleWatch in our household), and originally delivery was promised Oct 3–5. It came today. In fact, it went from Mt Pleasant to Rudyard this morning, then out for delivery. Just days ago it was in Alaska, Singapore, and China—in reverse order.

So far I can confirm that I have a heartbeat and that the device counts my steps, plus I have received and sent texts. You can “write” a text by bringing up this zone for you to finger spell in. My letter shapes were darned crude, yet it got every one correct immediately. Yup, Apple season.

Posted at 8:31 PM | Comments Off on Apple season

If we didn’t have fancy aerodynamic bumpers, I’d think about getting a tray-style one. If it didn’t require driving a firetruck to have such useful styling.

I’m guessing special nozzle?

Of course, if I had to fight fires to get such a bumper, well, I’d probably be sent out west right away. Way too impossible.

Posted at 9:01 PM | Comments Off on Elkhart Brass

Is this moldy fungi? I don’t remember seeing this combo before….

Okay, portrait mode here…HAD to do it as the flower was standing away from vegetation/visual distractions, all by its lonesome: perfect for the stage-light option.

Posted at 7:18 PM | Comments Off on Nature’s/my experiments