Monday Miscellany

Readers Write . . . 

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I have mentioned previously that reader Martin S keeps me honest by pointing out items which are incorrect or with which he does not agree. 

The item about the Winged Victory statue at Marrickville is a case in point. 

I mentioned that the original statue had a raised sword and that the replacement has the sword pointing to the ground, being more peaceful and also thereby ceasing it being a lightning rod for lightning strikes. 

The original Winged Victory.

The new Winged Victory.

Martin sent me an email disagreeing: 

Otto.  

The comment that the sword acted as a lightning conductor is not totally correct.  

The absolute height of the metal statue is more important. If there is nothing else around the statue, the sword in an upward on downwards position will have little effect.  

It reminds me of the case when Benjamin Franklin and William the Third argued over the design of a lightning conductor.  

I enclose an appropriate link.
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/14/science/lightning-rods-franklin-had-it-wrong.html?pagewanted=all 

Over the years, design and standards on lightning conductors have changed somewhat, it appears that we still do not know the best way of protecting objects from lightning.  

Regards Martin 

Thanks Martin. 

The following are the opening paragraphs from the article for which Martin has provided the above link: 

LIGHTNING RODS: FRANKLIN HAD IT WRONG
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD 

Published: June 14, 1983

BEN FRANKLIN and King George III rarely saw eye to eye on anything, including lightning rods. Franklin believed lightning rods should have sharp tips, the sharper the better. George, who often felt like telling Ben to go fly a kite, disagreed and had his palace equipped with blunt rods. And so the Americans and British went their separate ways not only politically but on the relative merits of lightning rod configuration.

It thus comes as something of a bolt out of the blue to learn that American scientists are now conceding that Franklin, the authority on electricity and inventor of the lightning rod, was wrong while George, the monarch with an interest in technology but no particular expertise, was right. Experiments in recent years show that blunt tipped rods, suitably grounded, are more effective than the sharply pointed ones in routing lightning harmlessly to earth.

Dr. Charles B. Moore, a New Mexico physicist, reported in a recent issue of The Journal of the Franklin Institute that the electric fields above the blunter rods were as much as two times stronger over greater distances than those above the sharp rods. 

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A street art item . . . 

Greece held the Petit Paris d’ Athènes (Little Paris of Athens) art festival from October 9 - 16, 2016. 

As part of that festival, street artist WD transformed the following intersection from this: 

to this: 

The work is called “Knowledge speaks – Wisdom listens” and, according to the artist: 

The owl as bird is famous for its exceptionally good far vision, particularly in low light. Nowadays Greece is experiencing a really dark phase and I think it’s time for us here and around the globe, to recall this creature’s wisdom.

Interruption to service

I will be away for a few days, so don't be sad, Bytes will resume upon my return.

 

Quote for the Day

Funny Friday

Yes, it is, so that means it's time for some funnies.

A return to ethnic stereotyping as we look at some humour relating to different countries . . . 

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Italy:

A wealthy man was having an affair with an Italian woman for a few years. 

One night, during one of their rendezvous, she confided in him that she was pregnant. Not wanting to ruin his reputation or his marriage, he paid her a large sum of money if she would go to Italy to have the child. If she stayed in Italy, he would also provide child support until the child turned 18. 

She agreed, but wondered how he would know when the baby was born. To keep it discreet, he told her to mail him a postcard, and write "Spaghetti" on the back. He would then arrange for child support. 

One day, about 9 months later, he came home to his confused wife. "Honey," she said, "you received a very strange postcard today." "Oh, just give it to me and I'll explain it later," he said. 

The wife handed the card over and watched as her husband read the card, turned white, and fainted. 

On the card was written "Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti. Two with meatballs, one without."

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Scotland:

Angus, a Scotsman, applied to join the New York City police force.

The inspector glared at him and asked, ‘How would you disperse a large, unruly crowd?’

‘Well,’ replied Angus thoughtfully, ‘I’m no too sure how ye do it here in New York, but in Aberdeen we just pass the hat around, and they soon begin to shuffle off.’

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New Zealand:

An Australian ventriloquist visiting New Zealand walks into a small village and sees a local sitting on his porch patting his dog. He figures he'll have a little fun, so he says to the Kiwi:

"G'day, mind if I talk to your dog?"

Villager: "The dog doesn't talk, you stupid Aussie."

Ventriloquist: "Hello dog, how's it going mate?"

Dog: "Yeah, doin' all right."

Kiwi: (look of extreme shock)

Ventriloquist: "Is this villager your owner?" (pointing at the villager)

Dog: "Yep"

Ventriloquist: "How does he treat you?"

Dog: "Yeah, real good. He walks me twice a day, feeds me great food and takes me to the lake once a week to play."

Kiwi: (look of utter disbelief)

Ventriloquist: "Mind if I talk to your horse?"

Kiwi: "Uh, the horse doesn't talk either....I think."

Ventriloquist: "Hey horse, how's it going?"

Horse: "Cool"

Kiwi: (absolutely dumbfounded)

Ventriloquist: "Is this your owner?" (Pointing at the villager)

Horse: "Yep"

Ventriloquist: How does he treat you?

Horse: "Pretty good, thanks for asking. He rides me regularly, brushes me down often and keeps me in the barn to protect me from the elements."

Kiwi: (total look of amazement)

Ventriloquist: "Mind if I talk to your sheep?"

Kiwi: (in a panic) "Don't believe a word he says, that sheep's a bloody liar.."

Two Kiwis are walking down a street in Sydney. 

One of the Kiwis happens to look in one of the shop windows and sees a sign that catches his eye. 

The sign said: "Suits $5.00 each, Shirts $2.00 each, Trousers $2.50 per pair". 

The Kiwi says to his mate, " Look! We could buy a whole lot of those, and when we get back to New Zealund we could make a fortune! Now when we go into the shop, you be quiet, OK? Just let me do all the talking, cause if they hear our accent, they might not be nice to us, so I'll speak in my best Aussie accent." 

They enter the shop and the Kiwi says, "I'll take 50 suits at $5.00 each, 100 shirts at $2.00 each and 50 pairs of trousers at $2.50 each. I'll back up my ute and..." 

The owner of the shop interrupts. "You're from New Zealund, aren't you?"

"Well... Yes," says the surprised Kiwi. "How the hell did you pick that?" 

The shop owner replied, "This is a bloody dry cleaners, mate!

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China:

Two Chinese exchange students arrive at the university cafeteria for lunch and ask what was available for lunch.  They are told there is pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs and fries. They each order a hot dog and sit down at a table to eat. After one unwraps the tin foil off his hot dog he looks at the hot dog and asks the other "So what part of the dog did you get?" 

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America:

A redneck family was visiting a big city for the first time, and they found themselves in a shopping mall. The father and son were strolling around while the wife shopped. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and then slide back together again.

The boy asked, “Paw, What’s ‘at?” The father (never having seen an elevator) responded, “Son, I dunno. I ain’t never seen nuthin’like that in my entire life, I ain’t got no idea’r what it is.”

While the boy and his father were watching with amazement, a large old lady in a wheelchair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady rolled between them into a small room. The walls closed and the boy and his father watched the small circular numbers above the walls light up sequentially. They continued to watch until it reached the last number and then the numbers began to light in the reverse order. Then the walls opened up again and a gorgeous, voluptuous 24-year-old blonde woman stepped out.

The father, not taking his eyes off the young woman, said quietly to his son, “Boy, go git yo Momma.”


Preparations begin at the White House:

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Corn Corner:

Just changed my Facebook name to ‘No one' so when I see stupid posts I can click like and it will say ‘No one likes this'.

Did you hear about the guy who got hit in the head with a can of soda? He was lucky it was a soft drink.

I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. It's impossible to put down.

Quote for the Day

Mgingo and Kamilo Beach

Interesting places . . .

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Migingo:

• Located in Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa, is an island by the name of Migingo. It is half the size of a football field but is nonetheless home to 131 people who live in huts made of corrugated sheets and timber. 

• Amazingly, it also has five bars, a beauty salon, a pharmacy, several hotels and numerous brothels. Most of island’s inhabitants are fishermen and fish traders. 

• Settlement started in 1991.

• There is an ownership dispute between Uganda and Kenya which remains unresolved. The island is inside Kenya’s borders but Uganda claims that it is within Uganda’s waters and that it is illegal for the island’s inhabitants to fish there. 

Gallery:

Weirdly, a much larger island called Usingo just 200 metres to the east of Migingo Island remains uninhabited. That's Migingo on the right, above.

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Kamilo Beach:

A number of people I know have either just been to Hawaii or are booked to go there shortly.

Here is a Hawaiian item I happened to come across.

• Kamilo Beach (literally, meaning twisting or swirling currents in Hawaiian), is a beach located on the southeast coast of the island of Hawaii. It is known for its accumulation of plastic marine debris from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

• Native Hawaiians used to go there to collect large evergreen logs that drifted ashore, from which they made dugout canoes. It was also the place where people lost at sea might eventually come to shore.

• The accumulated garbage that covers Kamilo Beach and an adjacent 4.5 km of shoreline today consists of 90% plastic. Although some of the items are household products, the vast majority by weight are fishing related such as nets, rope, cones used to trap hagfish, spacers used in oyster farming, buoys, crates, and baskets. Much of the debris is made from plastic pellets, either pre-production nurdles or pellets created from larger plastic items breaking down into smaller pieces.

• Hawaii is situated in the path of the North Pacific Gyre, a large rotating ocean current that circles the Pacific between North America and Japan. The gyre's rotational pattern draws in trash from across the North Pacific Ocean, including coastal waters off North America and Japan, and traps it at the centre to form the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. 

• Fishing debris, such as discarded fishing nets and lines, drowns, strangles, and traps birds and marine mammals. Some types of plastic and their constituents leach carcinogenic or poisonous chemicals when they break down. Others absorb toxins such as DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls from their surroundings. These toxins are absorbed by animals when consumed.

• Multiple community-based cleanup efforts have taken place on Kamilo Beach in recent years. Prior to these efforts, the debris was 2.4 to 3.0 m high in some places. In 2003, the Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund organized 100 volunteers and removed over 45 metric tonnes of fishing nets and other marine debris from the beach. They continue to host regular beach cleanup efforts in the region. In November 2007, Beach Environmental Awareness Campaign Hawaiʻi volunteers removed more than 4 million pieces of plastic from Kamilo Beach.

Gallery:

Quote for the Day

“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. 

To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. 

To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.” 

― Douglas Adams (1952-2001)

"The Restaurant at the End of the Universe".

Douglas Noël Adams was an English author, comic radio dramatist, and musician. He is best known as the author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Hitchhiker's began on radio, and developed into a "trilogy" of five books (which sold more than fifteen million copies during his lifetime) as well as a television series, a comic book series, a computer game, and a feature film that was completed after Adams' death. The series has also been adapted for live theatre using various scripts; the earliest such productions used material newly written by Adams. He was known to some fans as Bop Ad (after his illegible signature), or by his initials "DNA".

In case you missed it . . .

Caution: risque content

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Back in January 2012 I posted a Bytes item (have I been doing it that long??) about swear words. The item contained a poem called Ode to the Four Letter Word and you can read that post by clicking on the following link:

http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/four-letter-words-euphemisms-and-poetry.html

The poem makes the point that although there are all sorts of alternative expressions and euphemisms for four letter words, offence is taken not to the action or body part but the word chosen to describe it. Excrete and shit (as a verb) mean exactly the same thing. 

The last 2 lines of the poem are:

"Today not the act but the word is the test

Of the vulgar, obscene and impure"

Today, four letter words are not as shock-inducing as they once were. Just look at Hell’s Kitchen with Gordon Ramsay.

Instead, where people might previously have delicately referred to the “F word” and the “C word”, using those euphemisms, today the political incorrectness is applied to racist and discriminatory language, hence references to the “N word”. 

I was remind of this by an item on news.com yesterday. Read it at:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3915066/Australian-tourism-officials-furious-slogan-NT-guerrilla-group-NT-Official.html

By way of introduction for overseas readers, the Northern Territory (aka NT) is a huge federal territory in northern Australia famed for its outback desert landscapes, arid Red Centre and the iconic Uluru (Ayers Rock). 

The Northern Territory has a tourism authority, as do most States and territories worldwide, and it is known as NT Tourism. It uses the following logo:

In a move that has angered the government and NT officials, an unknown group has begun a guerilla marketing campaign with the slogan “See you in NT", only it is written differently:

The group has a website called “NT Official” which it uses to sell t-shirts, singlets and stickers decorated with the slogan: “See You in the NT - The top end, different from the bottom end.”

According to an NT Official media statement, the aim is to "bring attention to the unique Northern Territory as an ideal destination for the young or young at heart.”

According to Tourism NT, the government intends to launch legal action, not because of the risqué content of the message but that their logo has been appropriated without consent and without attribution.

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Some similar plays on words . . . 

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French Connection United Kingdom, usually abbreviated to FCUK, has been causing controversy for years. 

The business began in the UK and was originally named French Connection after the film of the same name, which had been released shortly before. In faxes passing between Hong Kong and London, the faxes were headed “FCHK” and “FCUK”. The company, with a limited marketing budget, saw the potential, renamed itself French Connection UK and began advertising as FCUK, usually in lower case. It created notoriety and brought the company to widespread public attention. In New York, the ads were banned from taxi roofs; in London the company has had to submit advertising copy to the standards body and its recent slogan – “kinky bugger” – has been banned. 

It hasn’t stopped FCUK using slogans such as:

cool as fcuk

too busy to fcuk

GUARANTEED fcuk

I've got my f, c and k, all i need is u

FCUK all night long

To announce the biggest French Connection shop to open, a full page ad was taken out in a UK paper proclaiming “The World's Biggest FCUK”.

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Honourable (dishounourable?) mentions:

Britney Speers, 2009 single
"If You Seek Amy"

Van Halen,1991 album

Quote for the Day

How about. . . 

PERSPIRE AND ENQUIRE

INSTEAD OF

RETIRE