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Have a Happy Thought:  At some point in your life, you probably made up a code with some friends. Maybe it was just a few words that you attached a special meaning to, or maybe it was an entire language (and no, pig-Latin doesn’t count, because all the adults already knew it). Sometimes, though, people come up with codes to communicate more clearly (think the NATO phonetic alphabet to help make sure words are spelled correctly)… but end up just making everything more difficult. This is a case in point: a cypher code created in the late 19 th century to – apparently – make it easier to send telegrams about new discoveries in Astronomy. My guess is that either very few people used this… or the people that did use this spent as much of their time decoding messages from colleagues as actually doing astronomy. Here's the first couple of sentences in this explainer about this “cipher-code”… This concept was pretty complex, but I’m guessing if you really took the time, it wou...

Have a Happy Thought:  One of the early dreams for the internet was that all of human knowledge would be available for everyone. While we haven’t quite reached that, there are still some corners of the internet, and dedicated people, that are doing their part to make this happen. You all know about Wikipedia, which has become one of the more reliable parts of the internet to start research on something (read the article, then follow the sources). I’ve also recently learned about the Survivor Library , which, while it is a little bit “prepper” in origins, is an amazing “compendium of the Technological and Industrial Knowledge of the 1800 through early 1900s with a few books from even earlier periods.” Want to learn about beekeeping; or how to make (or repair) a good shoe by hand; or re-read the Encyclopedia Britannica Great Books Of The Western World; or even refresh yourself on the rules of Whist – this is a great place to go. Some of you may remember me talking ...

Have a Happy Thought:  Things that fly are (usually) really good at avoiding crashing into other things in the air. Sometimes, though, they are not. A few examples, to brighten your day. 1. In the middle of the Great Smog of London (1952, after which we actually get the word smog), the visibility was so low that a pigeon actually flew into a man in the street . Neither saw it coming. 2. David Attenborough is very impressed with the ability of bats to use sonar to avoid things in their path – be it other bats, obstacles, cave walls, or people. Except for the bat that smacked right into Sir David’s face! 3. If you’ve ever driven from Auckland to the Coromandel, or Tauranga, or really anywhere on the East coast, you’ve probably driven past the Bugger Cafe. And if you’ve stopped in, you’ve probably seen this photo, of a couple of humans taking a “Titanic” photo of their love story, being rudely interrupted by a gull. Alternatively, it is the story of a gull just ...

Have a Happy Thought:  People, given the opportunity, LOVE science. More specifically, exploration. In this case, specifically, exploring the deep ocean. Researchers from the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales have set up a livestream from their Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) that is currently exploring a deep (3000 m)-sea canyon off the Argentinian coast. This went absolutely viral, both within and without Argentina – there have been at times literally tens of thousands of people watching this livestream. (To see the livestream, which as at writing is still going, go to the Schmit Ocean youtube page and look for the “Live now” section.) One of the real highlights of this was when the person operating the ROV found this very peculiarly shaped seastar (aka starfish). The operator did an honest-to-goodness double-take-then-zoom-in with the camera (or see it in full context ).   Image: a seastar with a symmetrical, rounded shape between two of its “legs”. ...

Have a Happy Thought:  Those of us older than a decade or so have gone through multiple formats of “saving” information. From physical documents, to reels of tape (be kind, rewind!), CDs and DVDs, flash drives (aka thumb drives aka USB drives aka aka aka), and, of course, “the cloud”. Now, I present to you the newest* method of recording information... a starling. Image: from gardenbirdwatching.com Basically, a guy who is “in to music and science” decided to test out his theory of converting an image into a soundwave, and then teaching that soundwave to a starling. His FIRST ATTEMPT was successful! And while this is fairly slow at an optimistic 2Mbps (a USB can transfer from betweeen 1 2Mbps to 12,000Mbps ), the fact that this theory has passed the first test is quite amazing. You can watch the ~30-minute video explaining the starling-storage system here, including a great explainer as to why starlings are so good at making so many noises: https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Have a Happy Thought:  Reading truly is a way to explore other minds and other worlds. Science-fiction especially is a great way to explore possible futures. From Star Trek communicators inspiring the popularity (if not the development ) of flip phones... ...To the terrifyingly accurate description of American politics in the mid 2020’s in Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower and sequels...     ...And then there is Roald Dahl foretelling ChatGPT. Yep, you read that right. The author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG accurately described today’s “AI” language generators, in his 1953 short story “ The Great Automatic Grammatizator” . It’s a short read, and well worth it, here are the things that really impressed me. Dahl forecast: the over-use of strange or exceptionally long words real life : words like comprehend, boast, swift, meticulous, and delve Dahl: “For example, there’s a trick that nearly every writer uses, o...

Have a Happy Thought:   Fairy tales and ancient myths really come to life through the amazing work of talented illustrators. Here is a selection of such work, all drawn by Virgina Frances Sterrett. She was yet another of the late 19 th /early 20 th  century artists whose life was cut short by  Tuberculosis . But her work lives on, ready to be re-discovered by simply opening a book (even a  virtual book !)   Cover of Old French Fairy Tales by Comtesse De Segur; illustrated by Virginia Frances Sterrett; 1920; The Penn publishing company, Philadelphia. From Old French Fairy Tales. Text: “She threw her arms around the neck of Bonne-Biche.”   From Old French Fairy Tales. Text: “They were three months passing through the forest.”   From Old French Fairy Tales. Text: “They walked side by side during the rest of the evening.”     Cover of Tanglewood Tales, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, illustrations by Virginia Frances Sterrett; 1921; Philadelphia, Penn Pu...

Have a Happy Thought:   Many of us grew up loving the one-sided confrontations between Roadrunner and Coyote. But did you know there were very specific rules for how these encounters would play out?   Warning : as you read these, you may find cartoon scenes playing in your head.   Rule 1. The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going "beep-beep!"   Rule 2. No outside force can harm the Coyote - only his own ineptitude or the failure of the ACME products.   Rule 3. The Coyote could stop anytime - if he were not a fanatic. (repeat: "a fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim.' -George Santayana)   Rule 4. No dialogue ever, except "beep-beep!"   Rule 5. The Road Runner must stay on the road - otherwise, logically, he would not be called Road Runner.   Rule 6. All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters - the Southwest American desert. ...