Wondering about Accidental Inventions.

I bet you thought that an awful lot of hard work, many hours of thought, and lots of trials and errors are involved in great inventions.  I have to agree that most are like that, but there are a few exceptions.  Some were accidents.  Do you want to hear about them?  No?!?!?  Well then, quit reading now and go to another blog, because I am going to tell about them.

Let me start with X-ray.  No, no one invented X-rays.  They have been around since the beginning of the universe.  But someone did invent a way for man to produce them and it was by accident.  Wilhelm Roentgen was performing a routine experiment involving cathode rays, when he noticed a piece of fluorescent cardboard across the room was lighting up.  He went on from there to X-ray his wife's hand, the first X-ray image of a live human part:

This next item was invented by a dog.  What??  Yep, you heard right, by a dog and exploited by its owner.  The dog and its owner, George de Mestral, were out hunting and the dog got a bunch of burrs stuck in its fur.  Old George got curious and took some burrs home and put them under the microscope and discovered tiny hooks that allowed the burrs to stick to the dog's fur.  And thus bloomed the invention of Velcro.

Then there was the fellow who was trying to make a heart-recording device.  He mistakenly used 1 megaohm instead of a 10,000-ohm resister in his prototype.  This produced a signal identical to a human heart beat, so the pacemaker was another accidental invention.

There were many more, but will not take the time to write about them all.  They include the microwave, Teflon, Play-Doh, Super Glue, the Slinky, Sweet'n Low, and many others.  I suppose that an accident would be the only way I could ever invent something and I would hope I had enough wisdom to recognize it when it happens.  Now, you all go invent something and have a great day, you hear?

Wondering about the Einstein Cross.

First, I need to explain gravitational lensing to you, unless you know all about it.  For those of you who aren't astronomers and don't know what it is, I will try to tell you.  A huge body has gravity and will attract other things.  It is something like magnetic forces but a lot weaker.  Oh, you thought gravity was stronger than a magnetic force.  Well, it could be if the thing we are talking about is very massive, but take a refrigerator magnet and I bet you can pick up a paperclip with it, right.  See, in this case the magnetic force on that paper clip was stronger than the earth's gravity.  Now, if we could stand on a planet the size of a massive star, that same magnet couldn't pick up that paperclip.

Now, there are things out in space that are so massive that their gravity can bend light.  This causes something that would normally be hidden behind it to be seen to the side of it or it will smear it around it like a halo.  How about an example.  This first picture shows the background galaxies smeared around a closer galaxy:

Now that is perfect example of gravitational lensing.

OK, now to get to the title, the Einstein Cross.  The center galaxy in the next picture (actually they are quasars, but I don't want to confuse you), has the other further away galaxy that is directly behind it projected as four galaxies around the center, closer one.  This picture is the Einstein Cross:

 

The reason it is named after Einstein is that it proves his theory that even light is affected by gravity.  Actually, the first picture shows the usual way this lensing would appear and the second picture is a rather rare type of lensing.

Now, an update for yesterday's blog.  We purchased a holder for the bird feeders that will get them away from the trees and, hopefully, the squirrels.  It can support two feeders from thin steel rods that will give the squirrels a real challenge when trying to raid the feeders.  Later, the smaller feeder will be replaced with a hummingbird feeder.  Here is a picture:

Now, I hope you all will be well fed, too, and I sure do want you to have a great day, you hear?

Wondering What Comes To the Feeder

It has only been a few days since I put up the bird feeders and they have had lots of visitors, some welcome, some not.  Among the welcome were back-capped chickadees, tufted titmouses (or is it titmise?), cardinals, etc.  Yep lots and lots of cardinals.  In the picture below, I circled in yellow the female.  She is harder to see than the male, she is in the upper right corner.  You can pick on the pictures to enlarge them.

 

Here is a close up of one of the cardinals:

 

This next picture is of another male:

 

 

And the last time I looked out there seemed to be a party going on.  There were all kinds of strange looking guests at this party.  One looks like a blue jay.  The other ones???  I don't know.  Maybe it was a costume party.  What do you think?

 

 

Gee, I wonder what goes on out there at the feeder at night?  What will I see if I look out around midnight or so?  Will it be this? 

 

 

Or this:

 

OK, maybe I will wait until sunrise to take a close look.  Who knows what secret things lurk in the night darkness.  OK, now you all have sweet dreams tonight but before you do, have a great day, you hear?

Wondering, how do you abbreviate pound?

Most abbreviations make sense to me, but not all of them.  These are the ones that make some sense to me: WTH (What The Heck), or YL (Young Lady), or XYL (Married Lady) [the last two are from amateur radio], or Tat (Tattoo), or Moonlight (to work a second job), or millions of more that I know you have heard.  But some just don't.  Those that don't can make sense if you look into their history.  How about I list a few that don't make sense at first.

lb. - Yes, we all know that it means pound.  So why is it lb. instead of pd. or pnd. or . . . well you get the idea, right?

Moon. - To show ones hind end.  Then there must be a half moon for half assed people?

Boats. - Based on a true story.

OPPS - Zero Pixels Per Second.

Z  -  So why is "Z" a unit of sleep?  Yes, I got my Zs last night.

NA -  Not Available, is what first comes to mind but there are lots of other words that use the same abbreviation.  A lot of abbreviations are like this and you have decide the meaning by the way it is used, or don't take the lazy way out and write it out in full.
--------

And of course the ones that do make sense:

RV. - Most of us know that means Recreational Vehicle.

Ms. and Mrs. - Ms. is for Miss, an unmarried woman and Mrs. is for a married woman.  (So does Mrs mean Mister's Sweetie?)

Cont. - Continued.

ASAP. - As soon as possible.

AA. - Alcoholics Anonymous

Alt. - Altitude

I could go on and on and on but you would surely get bored and bored and bored.  So, I will let you all add some of your favorite abbreviations in your comments.  So HAND (Have A Nice Day) you hear?

Wondering what to post.

OK, I got nothing!!  I seem rather brain  dead today and just can't come up with something fascinating, educational, humorous, intellectual, earth shaking, or just great reading.  In other words this is a non-blog post. . . or whatever.  My wife tells me not to post about the weather, that no one is interested and anyway, everybody has weather.  Even though they are predicting freezing rain and maybe snow, although when I got up this morning it was in the 60's and now it is down to 54 and dropping as the cold front comes through, I will not talk about it.  Just ignore what I said about the weather.

I also promised to tell you today what that gadget was that I posted about yesterday.  It was designed to cut strips of wool cloth that then could be made into things like rugs.  I am sure the strips could be used for many things other than rugs and I bet it could cut different stuff.  I guess I will have to experiment with it.  I believe it was originally used to cut wool material.  Whatever it is, the one thing I know for sure is that we now are proud owners of one.  It even had the original paper work for it.  It was made by Rittermere Crafts Studio, ltd., Ontario, Canada.  Karren of KarenInTheWoods Karen Pfundtner was the first to say what it is.  She wondered what her prize will be.  Well, it will be a great big "atta girl".   Now, you all stay warm and cozy and have a great day, you hear?

Wondering about Flea Market Finds.

My wife spent a few hours at one guy's tables.  I walked all over the flea market and came back and she was still there.  So, I went way down to the other end, bought a bottle of Mexican Coca-Cola and went and sat down at a friends table and chatted with him for awhile.  It got to be time for me to want to go home so I went back to that first isle and, yep, she was still there.  I told her I was going home and if she wanted a ride she better come too.  She said OK, and she had her bag full.  She got all kinds of fabric, brand new sheets, and a lots of other things.  I am going to just show you some of them.

I am going to show you a bunch of pictures of this one item.  Each picture will be from a different angle or distance.

OK now, how many of you know just what this piece of equipment is?  How big is it, you may ask.  Well, I can hold it in one hand.  The crank handle gives you a clue of the size.  I am not going to tell you what it is used for until tomorrow.  I want to see what you all come up with.  Join in and have some fun guessing.

She also got a neat belt buckle shaped like two hands.  One goes on each end of a belt and the clasp together.  Never saw a buckle like that.  Then she got some camel bells.  I guess all we need now is a camel. . .

Here is a close up of the tag that tell you all about them:

Guess what?  I even got a couple of books.  One was on diesel engines used on railroads, etc.  It is a mess and I am trying to clean it up.  May have to read it outside.  It smells too bad to bring it in the house.

I also bought this other book:

At my age, I probably could write a book like this but I had to get something from one of my buddies who sets up every week.  Maybe I should read it anyway, I may learn something.  Who knows.

By the way, that first item I showed you?  My wife looked it up on the Internet and they are selling for ten to twenty times more than she paid for hers.  I guess she did good.  Let's hope she gets a lot of use out of it.  It is a simply beautiful day here.  Hope you all have a great day, you hear?

UPDATE:  OK, some of you commenters got it right.  It was designed to cut strips of cloth that then could be made into things like rugs.

Wondering about Wild Bird Care and Feeding

My wife bought a couple more bird feeders and two huge bags of "Wild Bird Feed".  What is the difference if the feed is for wild birds or not?  Oh yes, an excuse to charge more.  Anyway, around my place, the birds are getting fat and sassy.  This is the big one she bought and I hung out side:

And this is the smaller one:

 

The birds just love these feeders, as does one persistent squirrel.  I keep chasing the squirrel away but he keeps coming back.  He chases the birds off and gobbles down the feed.  I keep telling him that squirrel is one of my favorite meals and if he keeps getting fat on the birds' feed, I may just resort to drastic measures. .

 

I have also hung out a couple of containers of suet.  Other places I have lived, suet was very popular with the birds.  So far, none have touched these:

 

I had to go get a prescription refilled yesterday.  It was cold yesterday and some sleet and freezing rain had fallen.  In front of the door of the building that my druggist is in, I saw this on the ground, melting:

 

OK, what does it look like to you?  It isn't very big, about five inches or so.  Is it just an accident of nature or did someone make it?  I can see two feet (upper left)  and two eyes (lower right).  Does the wet spot mean that it was much bigger at one time?  See, I told you it was on the cool yesterday!! 

You all keep warm and well fed and have a great day, you hear?

Wondering about a Chill in East Texas

The news last night was full of warnings of a severe cold front heading for sunny, warm East Texas.  They said it may even get down to freezing or below with sleet and freezing rain.  Now remember, I spent the first half of my life living in Western Pennsylvania so I know what cold and winter is.  Even though I have lived here for nearly thirty-five years, I still remember the snow and ice and cold of a Pennsylvania winter.  But, like all the rest of us around here, my blood has "thinned out", so they say, and I get cold when it gets below seventy degrees.  Well, I am not quite that bad, yet, but I do notice the cold and it takes me a little longer to get used to it.

How cold is it?  Well let me show you some pictures that I just now took.  This is a picture of my deck:

No, that isn't snow, it is ice.  We had both freezing rain and sleet overnight.  It is very unusual for us to get this, but you know, because of the global warming all kinds of strange weather will be happening, right??

OK, and what was the temperature this morning a little after 08:00?

 

In case you can't see it in the picture, the thermometer on my screened in porch shows twenty-eight degrees.  Now, I would think that would be cold in any one's book, except maybe the Eskimos.  Of course, according to last night's news on TV, it was a lot warmer in Alaska than it was here in sunny, warm East Texas.  Now, you all keep warm and cozy and have a great day, you hear?

Wondering about the Orion Nebula.

The last few nights have been quite clear and before I go to bed I step outside with the pups and take a look at the sky.  Of course the first thing that catches my eye is the Orion Nebula.  This is one of the few areas of nebulosity that is visible to the naked eye and looks really good with just a pair of binoculars.  For any of you who do not know what the Orion Nebula looks like, here are some pictures:

Betelgeuse (pronounced beetle juice) is the bright red star forming the upper left shoulder, the sloped three bright blue stars form his belt, and to the lower left is his sword made up of blue and red stars.  Of course that thing that looks like a red star is actually most of the nebula.



 

And here is a close-up of Orion's belt:



 

 

Did you notice in the lower left of the above picture that dark spot protruding out of the right side of the gas cloud?  The next two pictures below show the horse's head nebula.  The view is rotated 90 degrees counter clock wise.

 

 

Go outside and look straight up at about 20:00 and you will see Orion.  To see the nebulosity better, get your binoculars out and take a closer look.  You will probably not see the horse's head, but you will see the nebula.  You also will not see all the colors.  It takes long exposure times to see colors.  But take a look and let me know what you see.

I just got a call from Lake Conroe Penny, she is in the Hospital recovering from triple by-pass surgery.  We all wish her a speedy and complete recovery.

You all have great day, you hear?

Wondering about "I Love Lucy".

My wife bought a book at the flea market the other day about Lucille Ball.  It was quite interesting and I am not going to take the time or posting space by trying to tell you all the things I learned about her, but rather, I will show you some pictures from her past.  I am not going to scan the pictures out of the book but will find them on the Internet.

Did you know that she started out as one of the Goldwyn Girls?  Here is a picture of her as a Goldwyn Girl:

How about this next two pictures of Lucy, doesn't she look glamorous? 

Later in her life, she and her husband, Desi Arnaz, created the Desilu Productions.

It was in her television show, I Love Lucy, that her true comic nature emerged and she became the "Lucy" that we all remember.  She was a master of making faces.  These next two pictures are a long way from the first two above.

I like the comedian Lucy better than the serious one, don't you?  Lucy and Ricky and Ethel and Fred will live in my memory and in all those who have seen their shows.  Let me know what you think of Lucy.  Now, you all stay out of the Lucy type messes and have a great day, you hear?

Wondering About a Simple Trip to the Doctor.

It had been awhile since my wife and I had been to the doctor for a check-up.  In fact, his office sent us emails reminding us that we should come in and get checked.  This doctor thing is getting worse than State Vehicle Inspections!  OK, so we both made appointments for yesterday morning, hoping to get it over with early and knowing that blood tests would be drawn, we refrained from eating or coffee before we went.

The doctor asked how I felt, and I said GREAT!!  I guess that disappointed him.  He gave me a quick "look and see" and had to agree.  Then he checked my wife.  He got a worried look on his face and of course that put a worried look on my face.  He said that she should see a specialist, a heart specialist!!  He had his nurse set up an appointment with one in the same building but later in the afternoon.  This upset us both.  We came home and ate lunch and had our coffee.  Went back to keep our 15:00 appointment with the specialist.  He was a very nice fellow and he only spoke English - what do you think of that, lottajoy at http://littlelottajoy.blogspot.com/2014/01/greeting-cards.html#comment-form.

He said that the EKG showed possible abnormalities in the upper left heart chamber but when my wife told him that she had injured her elbow and it gave her a lot of pain, he said that the elbow pain could be causing the abnormal EKG but to be sure, he set up an appointment with a doctor down in the north part of Houston who would do an ultra-sound of it and get a clear picture of what was going on.  My wife has a good heart in both meanings and I am sure they will find that out.  No matter what the doctors say about her heart, she will always be my sweetheart.

Another bright and sunny day here with clear, blue skies.  We are going to have a great day and we want all of you to have one, too.  You hear?

Wondering about Listening.

Sometimes I wonder how well we listen when someone else is talking.  I love to talk, but I also like to listen.  It is really easy to listen if you are quite interested in what is being said.  Not so much if you are not interested.  In the latter case, your mind seems to wonder and think of other things while tuning out what is being said.  Since I am hard of hearing, I have to concentrate on what is being said.

 

 

But in a lot of cases I am just not paying attention.

 

 It is hard to get my attention when:

And if you don't like the way I am listening to you:

 

 

Now, what was it you said?  Seriously, I love to meet new people and hear all about their lives.  Everyone is just so interesting to me and everyone has a story or two or more to tell.  I am all ears, but I want to get my two cents worth in every so often, you hear?

Wondering about a little frost.

It got rather chilly this morning.  There was frost on the pumpkin.  At least there would have been if I had a pumpkin.  How cold did it get?  A lot colder than predicted.  Like I said, there was frost, but it should get up to about 70 later today.  Don't believe that I had frost?  OK, here is a picture out the windshield of my Jeep when my wife and I got in it to head for the flea market:

As I am writing this, it is now 62 degrees and climbing.

I guess that is all I have for today.  Maybe tomorrow I can come up with some words of wisdom, or something witty, or something unusual, or something beautiful, or. . . but until then, you all have a great day, you hear?

Wondering About Rings Around Moon.

I have told you before that I always like to look at the night sky.  I always do and last night was no exception.  I showed you some pictures I took of the "Wolf Moon" in yesterday's blog.  Shunning the fear of being redundant, I took some more pictures of the moon last night.  No, it was no longer the "Wolf Moon", but there was a huge ring around it.  I will only show you one of them that I took and one that I took from the Internet to show you what the one I took was supposed to look like.  My picture failed to show the huge ring that extended way out past the tree the moon was behind.  Here is my picture:

As you can see, the ring didn't show up in the picture.  Can anyone tell me why it didn't?  I don't know a lot about photography nor about digital cameras.  I just point and shoot and hope it turns out.

This next picture is the one I took off the internet.  It shows what I saw last night and tried to photograph.

My flash went off when I took my pictures, so I wonder if that had any effect on the way the picture turned out.  I wish it had turned out because it looked really neat with the moon peeking through the tree and the huge ring way out around it.  Well, at least I tried.  Now, I hope you all have a bright and sunny day today, you hear?

Wondering about the Full Wolf Moon.

Last night was special.  The night sky held the "Full Wolf Moon".  When I heard about that I just had to try to get a picture of it.  With my little old inexpensive digital camera, I tried a couple of shots.  As you can see, they aren't the best, very far from professional, but at least I took the pictures.  The flash went off (I guess it was set to automatic) but that was OK, it lit up the tree branches and gave it an unusual effect.  So, here is the first shot I took:

I zoomed it as far as my little camera would allow and tried to hold it as steady as this old body of mine would allow.  Notice the end of a tree limb protruding part way across the face of the moon?

 So, what actually is a "Full Wolf Moon"?  It was named that by the Indians when the hungry wolf packs would howl hungrily outside their villages.

Also, three hours before it was completely full, it was the smallest full moon of 2014.  As it says on the Internet: "In terms of apparent size, it will appear 12.2-percent smaller than the full moon of Aug. 10, the biggest full moon of the year.

It doesn't matter to me that much what you call it, I just call it beautiful!!  Now, you all dance in the light of the moon. . . or just have a great day, you hear?

Wondering about the Ides of January.

Today in January 15th and it is another beautiful day.  Spent yesterday working on my battery bank on the RV, four house batteries and two engine batteries.  But it was a great day to be outside.  That was yesterday and today is the 15th, and since I don't have anything outstanding to write about, I thought I would check and see what happened on this day through out recent history.

Let's see, oh yes for you football fans, this day in 1967 the first Super Bowl was played in Los Angeles between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs.  The Packers won.

In 1970 Muammar al-Qaddifi became Premier of Libya.  He had removed King Idris from office the year before.

On this day in 1973, Bonanza aired for the last time.  It had been on for fourteen seasons and it was the first western to be seen in color.

Also in 1973, the Vietnam bombing ended.

Remember the cop drama, Hill Street Blues?  Well back in 1981 it aired for the first time. . . yes, on this date.

On this date in 2008, the FDA approved meat from cloned animals stating that it was safe for human consumption.

I am sure we all remember flight 1549 crashing into the Hudson River in 2009.  To refresh your memory, here is a picture:

In 2010, a 7.0 earthquake hits Haiti killing 45,000 to 50,000 people!

And just last year, horse meat was found in "beef" burgers sold in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

By now, you probably have had enough January 15th trivia to last you until next January, right?  So I will quit before I completely ruin your day.  I do want you all to have a great day, you hear?

Wondering Out to get Propane.

When the temperatures get down to freezing and below, I run the furnace in my RV.  I have heat strips in my two overhead AC units that I use to keep the chill out, but all the plumbing is in the basement and they don't help warm it up down there.  Therefore, I run the furnace, which has floor ducts and it keeps the basement from freezing.  The furnace sucks up the propane and it got down to less than a quarter of a tank, so off to the neighborhood RV park to get it filled up.  The park is about three miles away, although there is one closer, I am not sure if it sells propane and I have been getting my tank filled at the same place for years now, even when I had my class-C.  I even stayed at that park a couple of times.  The last time was when I first got this diesel pusher and wanted to try it out but just in case there was a problem, didn't want to go very far from home.  That way, I got familiar with setting it up for a couple of days and if I forgot something, I could run home in the Jeep and get whatever I forgot.

When I was getting ready to take it over there to get propane, I unplugged it from the fifty amp plug and then pushed the "IN" button on the cable winder.  It only pulled for a couple of seconds and quit.  Oh, oh, my house batteries must have died.  Being plugged in for all those months must have boiled the water out of them.  I hope that is all that is wrong.  Today, I will try to get the batteries filled up with distilled water.  On my old motor-home, I had purchased a battery filling system.  You just stuck the end of the hose in a jug of water and squeezed the bulb until it got hard and you couldn't squeeze it any more.  That worked great, guess I will have to get something like that to keep my batteries filled and in good shape.  As soon as it warms up a little (it was freezing when I got up) I will go out and try to fill the batteries.  I will take some small tubing and try to cyphon water out of the jugs into the batteries.  Anyway, that is the project for today.

Although it is on the cool side, it is a crystal clear day and it is warming up fairly fast.  Now, you all have a great day, you hear?

Wondering about Numbers.

I use numbers, you use numbers, we all use numbers.  Without numbers we couldn't count unless we had a pile of stones and used them to represent quantities.  Of course, wouldn't that be a form of numbering?  In the occupation I chose for myself, I couldn't have performed my job without the use of numbers.  I just didn't have enough fingers and toes to do the job!  Just think about life without numbers.  So, you say, you will just use Roman Numerals?  Good luck with that!  Just try to do math with Roman Numerals, or work a square root, or how about some algebra or geometry?  Dang, I am glad I am not Roman (grin).

So, who do we thank for our modern numbering system?  Why I suppose that the Egyptians were first, but I have learned that ancient Sumeria, Babylonia, and India used numerals in business transactions.  All of the original numbering systems used some form of "1" for the number one.  That is because it looks like a single finger.  So, just to satisfy your inquiring minds, I will show you what the true Arabic numerals look like:

I can see the one, the nine, and the ten.  They look similar to the numbers we use.  The symbol for the number seven looks like it should be for the five, the one for the number six should be for the seven, and the one for the four should be for the three.  I know I am old, but I wasn't around back then to point out why they should be different.  Oh well, I will stick with the numbers I know and understand so that I will have a good day and I want you all to also have a great day, you hear?

Wondering back from the flea market.

Sorry I am late posting, but we spent more time than usual at the flea market.  My wife found many, many bargains and I brought home a Jeep full of all kinds of things.  I, on the other hand, again couldn't find anything that I could not live without.

Another beautiful day here in East Texas.  It is 75 degrees, clear sky, and gentle breeze.  But, this old State can surprise you with sub-zero temperatures without much warning.  I have seen forty plus degree drops in temperature in a very short time; just a few hours.  You know if the wind changes and swings around coming from the north, there ain't nothing between us and the Arctic Circle except a few strands of barbed wire (grin).

I think I will leave you with a chuckle today.  I saw a sign at the flea market that said, "I shot my first turkey today!!  The only problem was that it scared the crap out of the other customers at the meat counter."  I hope after that joke that you can still find a way to have a great day, you hear?

It's a Nice Day!!

It is absolutely a beautiful day.  Perfect temperatures, blue sky, sun shining, and to make it even better, they said this kind of weather will stick around far into next week.  Hey, that would be great!!  Winter time in East Texas, you got to love it!!

My wife just cooked for and fed the dogs.  They are now really happy.  One is licking my arm and making it hard to type, but wouldn't have it any other way.  Now my wife is cooking some Louisiana boudin sausage with a couple of fried eggs for my lunch.  Yum, yum, I love that stuff.  Therefore, I am going to keep this blog posting short and go get ready to feast on the boudin.  Do I enjoy boudin?  You betcha I do.  I am going to have a great day and I want you to have one, too, you hear?

Wandering about the Northern Lights.

Yesterday I wrote about CMEs and some of their effects.  Last night on the news they showed video of some fantastic Northern Lights.  Yep, that was a direct cause of the CME hitting our planet and the charged particles entering at the poles.  I pretty much explained all that yesterday.  If you want to read about it check out this link: HERE 

Here are some pictures of past Northern Lights:

It is so very quiet here and a little lonely right now for my wife and I.  You see, this was grooming day for our three pups and they are now at the beauty parlor.  The two girls will come home with ribbons in their hair and all three of them will smell real good.  One thing I know for sure is that they will be very glad to get back home and I will be glad to get them back.

I don't have much to say today, so you all have a great day, you hear.